Reflections In The Mirror
by recklessl0ve
Summary: Kat and The Doctor have survived the year that never was and now they are back. But the walls between universes are breaking, the stars are going out and two people who mean something to the duo are coming back for them. Kat may have just found her way back home, but will she want to go back? Will she be able to? Kat's life is about to change completely whether she likes it or not
1. Time Crash

**Hello everyone! I'm back! So here is the first part of Reflections In The Mirror which for those of you who somehow have no clue is a sequel to Black Stone Turned Into Dust. If you haven't read it, I suggest you go read it because while I will try to, I doubt I will be able to cover everything that happened to Katherine in that story. Plus you'll understand more about her character if you read it. But if you don't want to, that's fine, I'll try to make sure you don't get confused. Sorry if you do.**

**Oh, and I saw Lawson! I didn't really get a chance to meet them because somehow since the last time I saw them, the fan base has gained a bunch of annoying screaming fangirls that pushed all the decent fans who were giving the boys space out of the way… Yeah, fangirls aren't really accepted in the Lawson fandom, sorry. But Ryan was looking fine;) They've announce another tour now.. which I have tickets for. Those four boys leave me broke.**

**Anyway here you go, the first chapter!**

_XOXO_

_Previously…_

_I felt the whole ship lurch, making me fall to the floor. I heard some sort of alarm coming from the console room as the ship continued to shake violently, making it impossible to stand back up again. Eventually, it stopped and I stood up from the floor and ran down to the console room._

_"What the bloody hell was th—"I cut myself off mid-sentence as I stared at the scene before me. The Doctor was there, staring at another man dressed in an Edwardian cricket outfit. It was the fifth doctor, although he looked slightly older than he did in the episodes. He was staring at the Doctor, well the tenth doctor, looking just as bewildered as Ten was._

_"What?" Ten said._

_"What?" Five repeated._

_I walked down towards the two Doctors, staring at them, completely confused and slightly worried. "What?"_

_XOXO_

The two Doctors continued to stare at each other, both still bewildered, although Five seemed to look ever to slightly angry to me as well. I just continued to stand next to them both, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Who are you?" Five asked his future self.

"Oh, brilliant." Ten's face broke in to wide grin. "I mean totally wrong, big emergency, universe goes bang in five minutes but... brilliant!"

"I'm The Doctor. Who are you?" Five asked again, sounding even more annoyed as well as looking more annoyed too.

"Yes, you are. You are the Doctor." Ten nodded his head as he continued grinning.

"Yes, I am. I am the Doctor."

"Oh good for you, Doctor! Good for brilliant old you." Ten was obviously enjoying this a lot more than Five was. He was ecstatic. But Five was just getting even more annoying by the minute.

Five frowned. "Is there something wrong with you?" I had to try to stifle a laugh then. _You know no idea, Five. _I thought to myself. _You have absolutely no freaking idea._

"Oh! There is goes! The frowny face!" He exclaimed happily. If I'm right, I think he's fangirling over his old self. Except he's a boy. What do you call a boy who fangirls? Fanboy? I don't know let's just go with that. But all the same, it was just making this situation even funnier. "I remember that one!" The Doctor's smile fell and he took Five's face into his hands. "Mind you… bit saggier than it ought to be. Hair's a bit greyer. That's because of me though." He moved back near to the console as he began fiddling around with it, while Five self-consciously put his hands on his face. "The two of us together has shorted out the time differential. Should all snap back in place when you get back home. Be able to close that coat again." He moved over attempting to close up the coat Five was wearing. That was until he became all fanboy again. "But never mind that! Look at you! The hat, the coat, the crickety cricket stuff, the…"

"Stick on celery?" I suggested, smirking slightly. Which made Five turn to look at me, like he had just realized that I had been here all along.

"Yeah…" Ten drifted off. "Brave choice celery. But fair play to you, not a lot of men can carry of a decorative vegetable."

"Especially celery." I teased. Ten glared at me and went to say something on the lines of 'shut up'. However, Five got there first.

"Shut up." He snapped, making me and Ten freeze on the spot. Obviously he wasn't going to take any of our comments anymore. He whipped off his hat, letting it fall to the floor as he continued talking. "There is something very wrong with my TARDIS and I've got to do something about it very, very quickly. And it would help, it really would help if there wasn't some skinny idiot ranting in my face about everything that happens to be in front of him, and his sister encouraging him and making comments."

"Oh. Okay. Sorry, Doctor." Ten said rocking back on his heels.

"Thank you." Five said.

"But we're not brother and sister." I corrected him and Five shot me a glare. "Sorry." Five nodded as he turned around to work on the console. And Ten could no longer contain himself.

"Oh! The back of my head!" he cried gleefully.

"What?"

"Sorry, sorry." Ten apologised. "It's not something you see every day is it? The back of your own head." He leaned forward to get a closer look, and his smile fell again. "Mind you, I see why you wear a hat. I don't wanna seem vain, but could you keep that on?"

Five turned around to look at the two of us again. "What have you done to my TARDIS? You've changed the desktop theme having you?" He accused. "What's this one? Coral?"

Both me and Ten shrugged, "Well…"

"It's worse than the leopard skin." Five grumbled.

"Hey!" I snapped. "Don't diss the TARDIS! I like it." Five said absolutely nothing back and just simply pulled out a pair of half-moon specs, which just made Ten start jumping around again excitedly and Five shot up to look at us again, slightly alarmed.

"Oh! And out they come! The brainy specs!" He laughed slightly as he continued grinning. "You don't even need them. You just think they make you look a bit clever."

I frowned, turning to look at Ten and cocked my head at him. "Doesn't that mean that you don't need them either?" Ten went to answer me, but we were interrupted by another alarm blaring through the console room.

"That's an alert. Level Five." Five quickly rushed over to the console and started pressing buttons. "Indicates temporal collision. It's like two TARDISes have merged, but there's definitely only one TARDIS present. Looks like two time zones at war in the heart of the TARDIS." His face fell slightly as he realized something. "That's a paradox. Could blow a hole in the space-time continuum the size of…" Ten who had been standing with me next to five all along, shifted monitor around so that Five could read it. "Well, actually, the exact size of Belgium." He looked over to me and Ten, "That's a bit under dramatic isn't it? Belgium?"

Ten reached into his suit pocket, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "Need this?" He asked, holding it out to Five.

"No, I'm fine."

"Oh, no! Of course!" Ten said, starting to fangirl again. "You mostly went hands free, didn't you? It's like, 'hey I'm the Doctor. I can save the universe with a kettle and some string. And look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable!'"

I rolled my eyes at the Doctor's last comment about the stick of celery. You can't really make snide comments on your own fashion choice can you? Five stopped working, and walked right up to the Doctor again, the Doctor's fangirling/rambling making him even more impatient.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Take a look." Ten said simply.

Five's eyes widened as the realization suddenly started to kick in. "Oh… oh, no."

"Oh yes."

"You're…" Five stuttered. "Oh, no, you're…"

"Here it comes." Ten said grinning. "Yep. I am."

"A fan." Five said in disgust, quickly turning back to the console.

"Yeah…What?!" Ten cried, suddenly realizing what Five has just said. I suddenly burst into fits of laughter. Five calling his tenth self a fan was funny enough, but the upset look on Ten's face just made it even better.

"Level Ten now. This is bad. Two minutes to Belgium." Five said, mostly to himself. I was still trying to calm myself down, while Ten was still whining over the fact he had been called a fan by his previous self.

"What do you mean 'a fan'?" He whined, pouting. "I'm not just a fan, I'm you!"

"Okay, you're my biggest fan." Five said waving it off. "Look is perfectly understandable, I go zooming around in space and time, saving lives, fighting monsters and being… well, let's be honest, pretty sort of marvellous." Ten couldn't help but nod smugly in agreement to that. I just shook my head at the vanity of them both. "And naturally every now and then people notice me. Start up their little groups. That L.I.N.D.A lot." He frowned slightly, looking at the two of us. "Are you both one of them? How did you get in here? I can't have you lot knowing where I live." He waved a finger in our faces before moving back over to the console.

I rolled my eyes with a sigh as both me and Ten followed his previous self. "Look. Listen to me Doctor, he's you! He's you with a new face." I said as I started slapping Ten's cheeks. "Check out this bone structure, because one day, you're gonna have to shave it."

Just then, another alarm which sounded like a gong reverberated through the room. Five looked up alarmed, "The cloister bell!" he exclaimed.

"Yep, right on time. That's my cue." Ten said as rushed over to the console. Five quickly rushing after him.

"In less than a minute, we're going to detonate a black hole strong enough to swallow the entire universe."

Ten paused what he was doing and looked up at Five, looking rather guilty. "Yeah, that's my fault, actually." He confessed. "I was rebuilding the TARDIS, and I was gonna put the shields back up," He gestured over to me. "But I had to take madam over there out on a birthday trip, and I forgot. Your TARDIS and my TARDIS… well the same TARDIS, different points in its own time stream collided and, oop, there you go, end of the universe. Butterfingers. But don't worry, I know exactly how this all works out. Watch." He started running around the console manically, pressing certain buttons and leavers. "Venting the thermal-buffer. Flooring the Helmic regulator. And just to finish it off, let's fry those Ziton crystals."

Five's eyes widened. "You'll blow up the TARDIS." He cried, trying to stop him.

"Only way out." Ten told him as he turned to me. "Trust me?"

"Always." I nodded.

"Only way out? Who told you that?" Five cried in a high-pitched voice.

"You told me that!" Ten said. Pulling himself out of Five's grasp, he slammed his hand down on a button. A bright light flooded the room making it impossible to see anything. The sudden thought occurred to me that the whole white light thing was true, and I actually was dying. But soon enough the white light faded and I found myself back where I had been before. Back into reality.

"Supernova and black hole at the same time." Five said in awe.

"Explosion cancels out the implosion." Ten said.

"Matter stays constant." Five added.

"Brilliant." Ten said smiling.

"Far too brilliant." Five said looking at Ten impressed. "I've never met anyone else who could fly the TARIDS like that."

"Sorry mate, you still haven't." Ten said moving further around the console. "Kat's learning though. She might be some tough competition one day."

"You didn't have time to work that all out!" Five cried, following after Ten. "Even I couldn't do it!"

"I didn't work it out." Ten told him. "I didn't have to."

It was then that Five finally started to get it. "You remembered."

"Because you will remember." Ten nodded.

"You remembered being me… watching you, doing that. You only knew what to do because I saw you do it."

"Wibbly wobbly." Ten began.

"Timey wimey." The two of them finished off, me silently mouthing it. Ten went to give his previous self a high five, but Five just simply stared at it. So out of pity, I high fived him instead.

Five turned to me. "So you aren't his sister then?" he asked, I nodded. "Well, then, I'm guessing you're the latest companion?"

I nodded. "Yep, that's me. Katherine Stewart."

"Yeah, watch out for her, Doctor." Ten said to Five. "She's a right handful." Five laughed as I turned to glare at him. "Right! TARDISes are separating. Sorry, Doctor, times up. Back to long ago… Where are you now?" he asked Five. "Nyssa and Tegan? Cybermen and Mara and Time Lords in funny hats and the Master? Oh, he just showed up again. Same as ever."

I scoffed, "Complete and utter psycho case."

"Oh, no. Really?" Five said, smirking slightly. "Does he still have that rubbish beard?"

"No… no beard this time." Ten said. "Well, a wife."

"Psycho case of a wife." I scoffed again. "Match made in the heaven of the psychopaths."

Five laughed at that before he suddenly started to fade. "Oh, I seem to be off. What can I say? Thank you Doctor, and Katherine."

"Thank you." Ten and I said at the same time.

"I'm very welcome." Five's voice echoed as he disappeared. Seeing his hat still on the console, Ten flicked a switch on the console, making Five turn up in front of us again.

"You know, I loved being you." Ten said to Five, handing him his hat with a smile. "Back when I first started at the very beginning I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young. And then I was you. And it's all dashing about, and playing cricket, and my voice going all squeaky when I shout."

"And he still does it." I added with a smirk.

"Yeah, I do. I got that from you. Oh!" He swung his foot up onto the console, showing off his red converse. "And the trainers, and…" he took his foot of the console, reaching into his suit pocket again he pulled out his own brainy specs, putting them on. "_Snap_. Because you know what, Doctor? You were _my_ Doctor."

Five smiled and tipped his hat, "Thank you, Doctor. And Katherine, I look forward to meeting you. Something tells me there will never be a dull day with you around."

I shook my head, grinning. "Nope. There won't be."

Five smiled back, "To days to come."

"All my love to long ago." Ten said. And yet again, Five disappeared. I frowned as I turned to the Doctor.

"So, when we met in the hospital, you knew who I was?" I asked.

"Not at first, but once you said who you were… yeah. You made a good impression though, you know? Thought you were brilliant, couldn't wait to meet you." He paused turning to look at me, smiling. "And you are brilliant." I smiled back at him, but we were interrupted by Five's voice echoing through the TARDIS.

"Oh, Doctor, don't forget to put your shields back up."

Suddenly we were both thrown to the floor as bits of debris fell onto the floor around us. There was a loud noise like a horn, which made me instantly cover my ears. Once everything had stopped falling to the floor, I looked up. A ship had crashed right into the side of the TARDIS.

"What?" The Doctor cried. "_What?_" Seeing a life ring he scrambled over and picked it up, moving over next to him we read the words written on it. _Oh, no._

"_What?_" The two of us said in unison.

Written on the life ring were the words 'The Titanic'.

_Well, this is going to be fun._

_XOXO_

**Authors Note: Sorry for the lack of dialogue for Kat in this chapter, it was kind of hard to fit stuff in for her given Time Crash was sort of a one on one for the Doctors. Anyway please review. It would mean a lot**** And until next time… Allons-y!**


	2. Voyage of the Damned

_Previously…_

_Suddenly we were both thrown to the floor as bits of debris fell onto the floor around us. There was a loud noise like a horn, which made me instantly cover my ears. Once everything had stopped falling to the floor, I looked up. A ship had crashed right into the side of the TARDIS._

_"What?" The Doctor cried. "__What?__" Seeing a life ring he scrambled over and picked it up, moving over next to him we read the words written on it.__Oh, no._

_"__What?__" The two of us said in unison._

_Written on the life ring were the words 'The Titanic'._

_Well, this is going to be fun._

_XOXO_

The Doctor shot up from the floor in an instant and began dashing around the console. Slowly, I heaved myself off of the floor and stared at the ship in front of me. We had just crashed into The Titanic. Or The Titanic had crashed into us. Either way, I wasn't really seeing this as a good thing right now. The Doctor threw another life ring off of the console and wound a leaver. The hull of the ship moved out and the walls of the TARDIS quickly repaired itself. He then pulled another leaver, and I heard the familiar humming noise that signalled that we were materializing, probably onto the ship.

The two of us headed over to the door and stuck our heads out. It looked like we had landed in some sort of closet, which was good given that we did need to hide the ship somewhere. A closet seemed like a good place to hide it. The Doctor stepped out, me following behind him as he opened the door to the closet, peaking outside. A few seconds later he grabbed hold of my hand, dragging me out of the closet along with him. We were in a wood-panelled room that was decorated with all sorts of Christmas decorations. There were people dressed in in early 20th century clothing, walking around, talking, laughing as waiters and waitresses served them some nibbles and glasses of champagne. A band was playing a slow version of 'Jingle Bells' in the background.

We walked slowly around the room, trying to go unnoticed. The Doctor stopped as we came across to angels that looked like they had been dipped in gold, garbed in white. They jolted up to look at us, mechanically. Both me and The Doctor frowned. They were robots. They shouldn't be on The Titanic.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor continued walking away from the statues, turning around once to look at them again. There was the sound of a strange voice, and the two of us turned around to see a tiny, red man with spikes on his head, walking along, taking to two women who were walking either side of him. I frowned again. Aliens should definitely not be on The Titanic either. Again we carried on walking until we came across a window. It was when we turned around to look out of it that the realization struck.

"Oh." I said, my mouth forming an 'o' shape. _Now it makes more sense._

"Right…" The Doctor said drawing it out.

"Attention all passengers." A voice said over the loudspeaker. "The Titanic is now in orbit above Sol 3, also known as Earth. Population, human. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Christmas."

_XOXO_

The two of us had returned to the TARDIS. While the ship looked fine, it still needed a little more time to repair, and the Doctor wanted to investigate. So we needed to blend it a little better. As I had already guessed the Doctor had changed into his normal black tuxedo, which made me even more worried about what was going to happen. The odds that something bad was going to happen were high with just him on his own. The suit had probably made those odds even higher.

After rummaging around in the TARDIS wardrobe again, I finally found a dress that I liked. It was a white lace dress that came down to just above the knee. I wore it along with a light brown belt, some nude heels, a white cardigan and a few bracelets. Not bothering to do anything with my hair, I left it down and slightly wavy.

We wondered around the ship a little more until we came across a screen with a video of a man playing. He was a bald, with bright blue eyes, and a rather weird looking moustache. He even had a gold tooth!

"Max Capricorn Cruise liners. The fastest, the furthest, the best. And I should know because my name is Max." He smiled, his gold tooth glinting like some sort of cheesy cartoon before the screen faded back to the cruise line logo. I shook my head as the Doctor fiddled with his tie as we continued walking towards the reception.

"Merry Christmas, Sir, Ma'am." A steward greeted us.

"Merry Christmas." The both of us replied as we continued walking along. We stepped into the room that we had been in before. Everything was the same except for the band were now playing 'Winter Wonderland'. The two of us started to mingle, picking up nibbles as we walked past.

"It's not a holiday for me, not while I've still got my vone." A man spoke loudly as he spoke into a device which looked a lot like a mobile phone. "Now, do as I say and sell."

I raised my eyebrow at the man as he stalked off. Whoever he was, he was certainly being rude. I turned to the Doctor, who had spotted another one of those angels and walked towards it.

"Evening, passenger 57 and 58, terrible memory. Remind us, you would be?" He asked.

"Information: Heavenly Host supplying tourist information." It replied.

"Good. So, um, tell me, 'cause I'm an idiot." I couldn't help but smirk at that. He really was an idiot sometimes. "Where are we from?"

"Information: The Titanic is en route from the planet Sto in the Casivanian Belt. The purpose of this cruise is to experience primitive cultures."

I scoffed. "I like that, 'primitive'." I mumbled under my breath. "I have a question." I said, as the angel turned to look at me. "Who thought of the name, _Titanic?"_

"Information: It was chosen as the most famous vessel of the planet Earth."

Both me and the Doctor turned to look at each other, frowning before looking back at the angel. "Have they told you why it was famous?" I asked.

"Information: All designations are chosen by Mr Max Capricorn, President of Max… Max… Max… Max… Max." It kept repeating the name, its voice getting more high-pitched each time as its head started to jerk. I frowned slightly, turning to look at the Doctor.

"Ooh. A bit of a glitch." The Doctor commented, reaching into his pocket for his sonic screwdriver, but he was beaten to it by the Chief Steward as he caught site of the malfunctioning machine.

"Sorry, Sir, Ma'am, we can handle this." He said to us as he waved for assistance and two other stewards came over as they turned the angel off and hauled it away. "Software problem, that's all. Leave it with us, Sir, Ma'am. Merry Christmas." He said with a smile as he walked off with the other two stewards, muttering something that we could only just make out. "That's another one down. What's going on with these things?"

_XOXO_

We continued to walk around a bit. I still wasn't able to shift the thoughts of the ship out of my mind. Everything was telling me that this really wasn't good. But sure enough, my thoughts were finally distracted as I heard the noise of glass smashing. The both of us turned around to see a blonde waitress who had dropped her tray of drinks, looking up wide-eyes at a very angry man. The same rude business man who I had seen earlier.

"For Tov's sake! Look where you're going." He shouted at her. "This jackets a genuine Earth antique."

"I'm sorry, sir." The waitress apologized politely as she bent down to pick up the broken glass.

"You'll be sorry when it comes off your wages, sweetheart. Staffed by idiots." I went to go and storm over there and give him what was coming for him, a good old slap. But the Doctor grabbed hold of my arm to stop me. "No wonder Max Capricorn is going down the drain." And with that he stormed off.

The Doctor finally let go of my arm as we walked over towards the waitress bending down and helping her pick up the glass.

"Careful. There we go." The Doctor said as he picked up the glass carefully, placing it onto the tray.

"Thank you, Sir, Ma'am." The woman said looking up at us before beginning to pick up the glass again. "But I can manage."

"I never said you couldn't." The Doctor replied. "I'm the Doctor, by the way. And this is Katherine."

"Hey." I said, smiling at her.

"Astrid, Sir, Ma'am." She said, "Astrid Peth."

"Nice to meet you, Astrid. Merry Christmas." The Doctor said smiling at her.

"Oh, yeah. Merry Christmas." I repeated, smiling as well.

Astrid looked up, surprised at the two of us for saying that to her. "Merry Christmas, Sir. Merry Christmas, Ma'am."

"Just Doctor, not 'sir'." The Doctor told her.

"And you can just call me Katherine." I added.

Astrid nodded. "You enjoying the cruise?" She asked.

"Um, yeah. I suppose. I don't know." The Doctor said. "It is quite nice."

I shrugged. "I like it."

"What about you?" The Doctor asked as the three of us stood up. "Long way from home, planet Sto."

Astrid looking around slightly, "Doesn't feel that different." She shrugged. "Spent three years working at the Spaceport Diner. Travelled all the way here and I'm still waiting on tables." She said as she walked off.

Both me and the Doctor frowned as we followed Astrid who was cleaning a table by the window. "No shore leave?" The Doctor asked.

"We're not allowed. They can't afford the insurance." Astrid explained. "I just wanted to try it, just once. I used to watch the ships heading out to the stars. I always dreamt of… It sounds daft."

I shook my head. "It doesn't sound daft at all." I told her, because I knew exactly what she meant. Because I knew exactly what she had always dreamt of. It was similar to what I had always dreamt of when I was younger, travelling out through the stars, with the Doctor. I never knew my dreams would come true, even if there was a consequence.

"You dreamt of another sky." The Doctor said to her as both me and Astrid stared outside the window. I couldn't help but smile. "New sun, new air, new life. A whole universe teeming with life. Why stand still when there's all that life out there?"

Astrid had become distant, like she was inside her head, picturing everything the Doctor has described. Eventually she shook herself out of it and turned to the both of us. "So, you two travel a lot?" she asked.

I nodded, "All the time. Just for fun. But with him, it doesn't always work out that way."

"Must be rich, though." Astrid commented.

"Haven't got a penny." The Doctor admitted to her. Astrid raised her eyebrows and he moved closer as he whispered to her. "Stowaways."

"Kidding?"

I shook my head, "Completely serious."

"No!"

The Doctor nodded, "Oh, yeah."

"How'd you get on board?" Astrid asked.

"Accident." I answered with a shrug.

"I've got this, sort of, ship thing, I was just rebuilding… Left the defences down." The Doctor explained. "Bumped into the Titanic, here we are. A bit of a party, I thought why not?"

"I should report you." Astrid told us seriously. But both me and the Doctor knew she wouldn't.

"Go for it." I said with a smirk.

Astrid looked over to where everyone else was partying and having fun before turning back to us. "I'll get you both a drink…On the house." She said whispering the last part before she walked away.

We watched Astrid walk of as my eyes caught a group of first class passengers who were pointing and laughing. I looked over in the direction they were pointing to see a rather large couple that were dressed in purple country western outfits who were sitting at a table, eating.

"What have they found so funny?" I asked frowning slightly, my body tensing up. I knew that the group were laughing at the couple, but I had no idea what for. They looked like lovely people. And the fact that they were picking on people like that just made me mad.

"Come on." The Doctor said quietly dragging me along before I could go over and punch every single one of those people in face. He dragged me along to the table that the couple were sitting at, and we both took a seat opposite them. "Something's tickled them." He said, gesturing to the rude group behind us.

"They told us it was fancy dress." The woman told us. "Very funny, I'm sure."

"Well, you still look lovely." I gestured to the group again. "Better than them for sure."

"Thank you." The woman said, smiling.

"They're just picking on us because we haven't paid." The man continued. "We won our tickets in a competition." He explained, pointing proudly as the woman.

"I had to name the five husbands of Juthy Crystal in 'By the Light of the Asteroid.'" She said. "Do you ever watch 'By the Light of the Asteroid'?" She asked. I just stared at her blankly. I had never heard of the show until now. In fact, I hadn't even watched a single TV show since I had started travelling with the Doctor.

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Is that the one with the twins?" He asked, a bit unsure.

"That's it." The woman said, nodding. "Oh, it's marvellous."

"But we're not good enough for that lot." The man said pointing at the group again, who long ago had stopped laughing. But were still whispering, looking over at the couple now and then, and the want to punch him in the face came back again. "They think we should be in steerage."

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" The Doctor said. With one hand he tried to stop me from standing up and going over to them. With the other hand he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He held it under his arm, aiming it at the group and flicked it on. Seconds later the champagne bottle on their table popped, spraying the whole lot of them with its contents. I smirked in satisfaction at the scene before turning back to the Doctor, smiling. They had so deserved it.

The couple, who had watched the whole scene in front of them with open mouths turned to look at the Doctor. "Did-did you do that?" She asked.

"Maybe." The Doctor shrugged, placing the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket.

The couple started to laugh, amusement clear on their faces. "We like you two." The woman said.

"We do." The man agreed, reaching over to shake our hands. "I'm Morvin Van Hoff." We both shook his hand. "This is my good woman, Foon."

"Foon." The Doctor grinned shaking her hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor, and this is Katherine."

"Pleased to meet you." I said, also shaking Foon's hand.

"Oh, I'll need a doctor by the time I finish with that buffet." Foon commented, gesturing to the pile before us. "Have a buffalo wing. They must be enormous these buffalo. So many wings." Morvin just shrugged as the three of us all took a buffalo wing. I have to admit, they were pretty good.

"Attention, please." The voice said over the loudspeaker again. "Shore leave tickets Red 6-7 now activated. Red 6-7."

Morvin and Foon fumbled around in their pockets for a few seconds before they both pulled out a red ticket each. "Red 6-7. That's us." She said as the two of them stood up from the table. "Are you Red 6-7?" she asked us.

The Doctor looked turned to look at me, I just simply shrugged. "Might as well be." He said shrugging also as he pulled out the psychic paper.

"Come on, then." Morvin said dragging us away from the table as he put an arm around his wife. "We're going to Earth."

_XOXO_

Morvin and Foon rushed over two an elderly man, dressed in a tweed suit. Holding up a red card that had '6-7' written on it. "Red 6-7. Red 6-7, this way. Fast as you can." He called out. As me and the Doctor mad our way over two him, I saw Astrid approaching us.

"I got you those drinks." She said.

"And we've got to a treat." I said, grinning. The Doctor, who finally caught on, took the tray out of her hands and placed it on a table. Together, we both lead her over to the elderly man with the sign. The Doctor walked up towards him, holding out the psychic paper.

"Red 6-7, plus two."

"Uh, quickly sir, please, and take three teleport bracelets if you would." The man stuttered. Grinning, the Doctor grabbed three teleport bracelets. He handed one to me which I put on without a second though. And another one to Astrid before putting one on himself.

"I'll get the sack." Astrid hissed.

"Oh, come on, Astrid. You've always dreamt of seeing new worlds haven't you?" I asked, not even waiting for an answer. I knew it already. "Well this is your chance to see one."

The Doctor nodded, "Brand new sky." He whispered. Giving in, Astrid also put on her bracelet.

"To repeat. I am Mr Copper, the ships historian." The elder man said. "And I shall be taking you to old London Town in the country of UK, ruled over by the Good King Wenceslas. Now human beings worship the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, the people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner, like savages."

I turned to look at the Doctor as we both looked at each other with the same confused expression. "What?" I mouthed. The Doctor just shrugged. I rolled my eyes as I turned back around to the man. "Um, excuse me? Sorry, but where did you get this information?"

"Well, I have a first class degree in Earthonmoics." He told me. "Now, standby." I raised my eyebrow slightly, but just shook my head, giving up.

"And me! And me! Red 6-7." A high-pitched, squeaky voice shouted out. Soon the same small red man with spikes on his head that we had seen earlier pushed his way through to the front, holding a ticket.

"Take a bracelet, please, sir." The man said.

"But, um, hold on, hold on." The Doctor interrupted. "Um, what was your name?" He asked spiky.

"Bannakaffalatta." Spiky answered. I blinked. _What?_

"Okay, Bannakaffalatta. But it's Christmas Eve down there. Late-night shopping, tons of people. He's like a talking conker." Bannakaffalatta shot him a glare. "No offence, but you'll cause a riot, 'cause the streets are gonna be packed with shoppers and parties and—" The Doctor was cut off as the next second we knew we were standing in the middle of a street in London. "Oh."

Both of us looked around the street on concern. The street was empty. Completely empty. Deserted. There was no one there. All the shops were closed. It was Christmas eve! Even then, it's London! This place should be packed with people. But instead it was empty.

"Now, spending money." Mr Copper began. "I have a credit card in Earth currency. If you want to buy trinkets or stockings or the local delicacy, which is known as beef. But don't stray too far, it could be dangerous." He warned. "Any day now, they start boxing." And with that everyone headed off in their different directions, but me and the Doctor stayed still, continuing to look around.

"Doctor?" I whispered. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"It should be full." The Doctor said in a low voice. "It should be busy. Something's wrong."

"But it's beautiful." Astrid said in awe, the Doctor turned to look at her surprised. But I understood exactly how she felt. It didn't even matter where you were. If you were standing on an alien planet, it was all beautiful. So different and strange, but so beautiful at the same time.

"Really? Do you think so?" The Doctor asked. "It's just a street. The pyramids are beautiful, and New Zealand."

"But it's a different planet." Astrid breathed. "I'm standing on a different planet! There's concrete! And shops, alien shops, real alien shops!" She stopped pointing up at the sky, "Look, no stars in the sky. And it smells." She inhaled deeply. "It stinks! Oh this is amazing! Thank you. Both of you." She said, giving both of us a hug each.

"Yeah? Come on, then, let's have a look." Astrid stopped hugging us as the three of us ran hand in hand across the street, towards a news agent booth, the only open place that we could see on the street. Inside the booth of an old man, bundled up in his winter clothes. "Hello, there. Sorry, obvious question. But where's everybody gone?"

"Oh-ho, scared." The man answered.

"Oh, right, yeah." I said as I frowned, "Scared of what?"

"Where have you been living?" _Oh, just police box that is actually an alien spaceship that is bigger on the inside than the outside. Oh, and did I mention it also travels in time? _I had the biggest impulse just to say that to him, but I managed to keep my mouth shut as the old man continued. "London, at Christmas. Not safe, is it?"

"Why?" The Doctor asked, not getting it either.

"Well, it's them, up above." The man said pointing up towards the sky. "Look, Christmas before last, we had that big bloody spaceship, everyone standing on the roof." He said pointing to the tiny TV in his booth which was showing a clip of the Sycorax ship on BBC news. "And then last year, that Christmas star electrocuting all over the place. Draining the Thames."

"This place is amazing." Astrid breathed.

"And this year, God knows what." The man continued. "So, everybody's scarpered. Gone to the country. All except me, and Her Majesty."

He stood proudly as he looked at the TV screen, I turned to look at it again as it showed a news reporter standing outside Buckingham Palace. "Her Majesty the Queen has confirmed that she'll be staying in Buckingham Palace throughout the festive season to show the people of London and the world that there's nothing to fear."

"God bless her!" The man said as he saluted. "We stand vigil."

"Well, between you and me, I think Her Majesty's got it right. As far as I know, this year, nothing to worry about—" The Doctor looked like he was about to say something else, but before we knew it, we had been teleported back onto the ship again. "I was in mid-sentence!" He whined in annoyance.

_And about jinx us probably. _I thought to myself. Even if the Doctor said he thought there wasn't anything to worry about, I certainly did. But instead of telling him that I just said, "I hope that guys alright." It probably didn't make him feel too good. There he and the Doctor were, going on about nothing bad is going to happen, no aliens, and then we disappear right in front of him.

"Yes, I'm sorry about that." Mr Copper said. "Bit of a problem. If I can have your brace—" He was cut off as the Chief Stewart came along. Astrid quickly hid behind the two of us so that she couldn't be seen.

"Apologies, ladies and gentlemen, Bannakaffalatta. We seem to have suffered a power fluctuation." He said. "If you'd like to return to the festivities, and on behalf of Max Capricorn Cruise liners, free drinks will be provided."

Everyone started to walk off slowly and Astrid turned around back to us again. "That was the best!" she said happily. "The best!" The two of us smiled at her, and she darted off back to work. The Doctor then raised his eyebrows as he walked up towards the Chief Steward, me following behind him.

"What sort of power fluctuation?"

_XOXO_

We eventually gave up on trying getting an answer out of the Chief Steward. They weren't going to tell us anything. We began walking around again for a while, but we soon got bored. So we grabbed a tray of nibbles as we sat down at one of the tables and started to stuff our faces with them. And when we got bored of that, we ended up playing that game were you throw food at each other and the other person has to catch it. Right now, the Doctor was winning. It was safe to say that I was awful at this game. Either that or the Doctor was terrible at throwing. Either way, I felt sorry for whoever was going to have to clean up after us, because hundreds of nibbles which had missed my mouth were now on the floor.

The Doctor another nibble of off the tray and threw it in my direction. To my surprise, I actually caught this one. As I normally do, I went over the top, jumping out my chair and doing a little 'victory dance'. I turned around to see Astrid watching from nearby, laughing. I smiled at her broadly as I turned back around to the Doctor, but he wasn't there. I looked around to see him standing by one of the many frames showing a talking picture of Max Capricorn.

"And I should know, because my name is Max." he said, giving the same grin that I had seen before. Sighing, I walked over to stand next to him.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

The Doctor said nothing. He just pulled out his brainy specs, putting them on as the video repeated itself. "The fastest, the furthest, the best." Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor finally got the frame to open revealing a mass of wires and plugs behind it. The Doctor instantly began to fiddle around with them.

"Got anything?" The Doctor asked just as the screen changed to show a scan of the Titanic.

"Yeah." I told him. It was then that I noticed than the screen was saying that the shields were down. "Doctor? It says the shields are down." I said nervously.

The Doctor moved around to look at the screen, mirroring the worried look on my face. The Time Lord leaned over and look out of the window beside us. I followed his gaze, only to wish that I hadn't. There were three oncoming meteors heading straight for us.

"Doctor…" I said, my voice getting more high-pitched by the minute.

The Doctor grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed it gently before he rushed back over to the screen, fiddling about with the wires and pressing more buttons before he began speaking into it. I just instantly guessed that he had got into the comms. "Is that the bridge? I need to talk to the Captain. You got a meteoroid storm coming in. West 0 but north 2."

"Who is this?" A man's voice came over the comm, I guessed it was the Captain.

"Never mind that. You're shields are down. Check your scanners, Captain. You've got meteoroids coming in and no shielding!"

"You have no authorisation." The Captain said flatly, obviously not even fussed about the situation. "You will clear the comms are once."

I let out a frustrated sigh as I moved towards the frame, "Oh my God, just listen to him will you! There are three meteoroids heading straight for us and the shields are down! Don't believe us? Look out the freaking window!"

"Come with me, Sir, Ma'am." A voice said from behind us. We turned around and the next thing we knew, The Chief Steward and another steward were leading us out. But that wasn't going to stop us.

"You've got a rock storm heading for the ship and the shields are down!" The Doctor argued with the Chief Steward.

"You better listen to him! Because he's right, and if you don't do something about it, we're all going to die!" I said as I tried to struggle free of the stewards grasp, the Doctor also doing the same. Eventually it worked and the two of us ran, heading straight for the stage the band were playing on. The Doctor got there first, taking the microphone away from the woman who had been singing.

"Listen to me. This is an emergency. Get to the life-" He was cut off as a Host grabbed him from behind, covering his mouth. I ran over, going to warn them myself when another Host done the same thing to me. The two stewards came not long after and dragged us out again, but this time I wasn't able to struggle free, not with two of them, but I was still gonna try. "Look out the windows!" The Doctor shouted as the stewards continued to drag us out.

"If you don't believe me, check the shields yourself!" The Doctor said as I continued to try and struggle free. Astrid, Morvin, Foon and Bannakaffalatta running after us.

Astrid rushed after us both, "Sir, I can vouch for them."

"Look, Steward, they've just had a bit too much to drink." Morvin said, trying to help.

"Sir, something seems to have gone wrong." Mr Copper said. "All the teleports have gone down."

"Not now!" The Chief Steward snapped.

_XOXO_

The stewards were taking us down the maintenance corridors, Astrid, Movin, Foon, Bannakaffalatta and Mr Copper had all followed. The Chief Steward still wasn't listening to our pleas for him to check the shields, but we still weren't going to give up. "The shields are down! We're going to get hit!" The Doctor insisted.

"For god sake just listen to him!" I shouted. After that, it seemed like everyone was talking at once, making it impossible to make out what any of them were saying.

It was then that I heard a voice I thought I'd never be thankful to hear. That rude man from earlier caught up with the rest of us as he shouted towards the Chief Steward. "Oi, Steward! I'm telling you the shields are down!"

"Listen to him! Listen to him!" The Doctor pleaded.

Just seconds later the ship lurched as the first meteor out of the three hit it, throwing everyone around. Bit of metal from the ship fell to the floor, fire blew at them, and sparks flew everywhere.

Just as me and the Doctor had managed to get up off of the floor, the second and third meteors hit. The ship gave another huge lurch and the two of us fell to the floor again. Eventually, the ship became still, and the two of us were able to get back on our own two feet again.

The Doctor was the first to stand up while me and Astrid who had fallen beside us moved so that we were sat up. The three of us looked around at the little group, all of them on the floor, whimpering and breathing heavily. "Shhh." The Doctor urged, holding up a finger. Everyone complied. "It's stopping." He turned around to me and Astrid holding out both of his hands to help us up. "Are you all right?"

"I think so." Astrid replied.

"Kat?"

I nodded. "Yeah, just about." I said as I looked around. "Bad name for a ship."

"Either that or this suit is really unlucky." The Doctor added.

It was then that we both noticed that the steward was lying, trapped under a piece of metal. But he wasn't moving. He was giving no sign that he was conscious or even actually alive. The Doctor bent down and checked the man's pulse; he looked over at the Chief Steward and shook his head, sadly. He was dead.

"Everyone, ladies and gentlemen, Bannakaffalatta. I must apologise on behalf of Max Capricorn Cruise liners. We seem to have had a small collision." Everyone was in a sudden uproar, except from me and the Doctor who had found another screen with Max Capricorn on it.

"If I could have silence, ladies and gentlemen." Still everyone continued to shout. "Quiet!" The Chief Steward shouted above then all, making them suddenly go quiet. "Thank you. I'm sure Max Capricorn Cruise liners will be able to reimburse you for any inconvenience. But first, I would point out, that we're very much alive."

I suddenly caught sight of Mr Copper, it looked like he had a cut on his head. I slowly walked over to him, Astrid doing the same as she dabbed the cut with a hanky. The Doctor followed along back over to the group as the Chief Steward carried on talking.

"It is, after all, a fine and sturdy ship." He said. "If you could all just stay here while I ascertain the exact nature of the situation."

He walked over towards a hatch to open it. The Doctor turned around suddenly, wide eyed. "Don't open it!" He cried. But he was too late. The door to the hatch had already opened and the Chief Steward was sucked out into space by the vacuum. We all grabbed on to the closest thing possible to hold onto before we were all swept away as well. The Doctor managed to push his way over to the comm and grab his sonic screwdriver, using it on the computer. Within seconds the oxygen shield was fixed and everyone was able to let go.

"_**Oxygen Shield stabilized."**_

"Everyone all right?" The Doctor called out. "Kat?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Astrid?"

"Yeah."

"Foon? Morvin? Mr Copper? Bannakaffalatta?"

"Yes." The small man replied.

The Doctor looked up to the rude man from before. "You, what was your name?" he asked.

"Rickston Slade." He replied.

"You all right?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah. No thanks to that idiot." Rickston sneered. Both mine and Astrid's heads snapped to look over at the man.

"The Steward just died!" Both me and Astrid said at the exact same time. Although I sounded more angry than anything while Astrid just sounded distressed.

"Then he's a dead idiot." Rickston retorted.

It was then that my will snapped. I had completely had it was this man. I clenched my fists as I stalked over to him with a great intention to give him a broken nose. "What did you just say? Who the fu—" I was stopped as the Doctor dragged me away, covering my mouth with his hands before I could say anymore.

"All right, calm down." He said, probably more to me than anyone else. "Just stay still, all of you, hold on." The Doctor who still had a hold of me, and not wanting to let go of me just in case I done something like murdered that posh, rude snob, dragged me along with him towards the open hatch. Astrid followed close behind.

"What happened?" She asked. "How come the shields were down?"

"I don't think it was an accident." The Doctor stated.

I shook my head. "Definitely not. The Captain was being rude and arrogant. He wouldn't have been acting like that unless he already knew." I said as I looked outside at the flotsam, jetsam and the dead bodies of the staff and guests floating in space.

"How many dead?" Astrid asked.

"We're alive, just focus on that." The Doctor told her. "I will get you out of here." Astrid said nothing as she looked on at the horrific scene in front of her. It already looked like the she had given up hope, but the Doctor wasn't going to let that happen anytime soon. "Astrid, I promise. Look at me." Finally she done as he said and looked at him. "I promise." She nodded. "Good." He began looked around. "Now, if we can get to reception, we've got a spaceship tucked away. We can all get on board—"

I felt my heart drop as I continued to look out the open hatch. "Doctor." I interrupted him in a dejected tone. He turned to look at me, confused and I silently pointed to where the TARDIS was floating outside, among the debris.

"Oh…" he said in the exact same tone as mine.

"What is it?" Astrid asked. "What's wrong?"

The Doctor gestured outside towards the ship, "That's our ship over there."

"Where?" she asked.

"It's there." I said, pointing towards here. "It's that little blue box."

Astrid scoffed. "That's a spaceship?"

"Hey! Don't knock it." I told her. "It's a brilliant ship."

"Well, you got the right world earlier when you said 'little'." Astrid said. "It is a bit small."

"A bit distant," The Doctor said, sighing. "Trouble is, once it's set adrift, it's programmed to lock onto the nearest centre of gravity and that would be—"

"The Earth." I finished for him. "Brilliant. Why did you come up with that idea?"

The Doctor just glared at me for a second before moving back over the comms. He mucked around with them for a while before speaking into it. "Deck 22 to the bridge. Deck 22 to the bridge. Is there anyone there?"

It was a few seconds before a voice responded. This one sounded a lot different to the Captain we had been speaking to before. A lot younger as well. "This is the bridge."

"Oh! Hello sailor, good to hear you." The Doctor said happily, relieved there was someone still alive up there. "What's the situation up there?" He asked.

"We've got air, the oxygen field is holding. But the Captain…" There was a short pause at the other end. "He's dead. He did it." The man's voice broke. "It wasn't my fault he took down the shields. There was nothing I could do. I tried. I did try."

I rushed over the comms next to the Doctor, making him move out of the way slightly. "It's all right, it wasn't you're fault, it's fine. Everything's going to be okay. Just try to stay calm. Deep breaths." I waited a couple of seconds for the man to calm down before speaking up again. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Midshipman Frame." The man replied.

I smiled, even though the man couldn't see it. "Nice to meet you, Mr Frame. I'm Katherine."

"What's the state of the engines?" The Doctor asked.

"They're…um…" He paused again for a short moment. "Hold on." Suddenly were a painful groan over the loud speaker.

"Are you all right?" I asked in concern. "You've been injured haven't you?"

"I'm all right." Frame replied. "Oh, my vot. They're cycling down."

By the look on the Doctor's face, that wasn't a good thing. And I felt my stomach clench slightly. "That's the nuclear storm drive, yes?" The Doctor asked, rubbing his eye.

"Yes."

"The moment they're gone, we lose orbit." The Doctor said. My eyes widened. Not good at all.

"The planet…"

"Oh, yes." The Doctor nodded. "If we hit the planet, the nuclear storm will explode and wipe out life on Earth." I turned to look out at the Earth outside again, starting to feel sick at even the thought of it. "Midshipman, I need you to fire up the containment field and feed it back into the core."

"This is never gonna work." Frame told him.

"Trust me. It'll keep the engines going 'till we can get to the bridge." The Doctor turned off the comm and back to the group of people, who were now going crazy.

"We're going to die." Foon said, close to tears.

"Are you saying someone did this on purpose?" Mr Copper asked.

"We're just a cruise ship!" Astrid argued.

"Okay! Okay!" The Doctor cut in, "Tch, tch. First things first. One: we're going to climb through this ship. B… No."

"Two." I corrected him.

"Oh, yeah. Two: we're going to reach the bridge. Three, or C: we're going to save the Titanic. And coming in a very low four, or D, or that little IV in brackets they use it foot notes… Why? Right then, follow me."

"Hang on a minute." Rickston spoke up. I couldn't help but let out an eye roll and an annoyed sigh. Of course this prat would have to have something to say, wouldn't he? "Who put you in charge? And who the hell are you anyway?"

The Doctor turned around. He had that fierce, Time Lord face on. The one where I didn't know whether I should smile, or run a mile away. "I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below." Okay so this time I chose to smile like an absolute idiot. "You have a problem with that?"

"No." Rickston said, almost defensively.

"In that case, _allons-y!_" He said as he took off again one more time dragging me along with him and leaving the rest of them to follow behind. I turned to look at him grinning, and he raised his eyebrows at me.

"That speech, was epic."

_XOXO_

The Doctor slowly pushed open a large metal door that lead to a stairwell that was littered with debris and sparking cables. "Careful. Follow me." He said as he pushed his way through to the stairwell, clearing it for the rest of us.

"Rather ironic, but this is very much in the spirit of Christmas." Mr Copper commented as we all started climbing up the stairs, one by one. "It's a festival of violence. They say that human beings only survive depending whether they've been good or bad. It's barbaric." I just shook my head. This guy really had no idea about Christmas on Earth. I was starting to wonder where he had actually got this degree he supposedly had in Earthonomics from.

"Actually, that's not true." The Doctor said to him. "Christmas is a time of peace and thanksgiving and…" He drifted as he shook his head slightly. "What am I on about? My Christmases are always like this." He grabbed another piece of metal, moving it out of the way to reveal a dormant host. "We've got a Host. Strength of ten. If we can mend it, we can use it to fix the rubble."

"We can do robotics, both of us." Morvin offered pointing to him and his wife.

"We work on the milk market back on Sto." Foon explained. "It's all robot staff."

"See if you can get it working." The Doctor told them, nodding to the angel. He then turned back to me and Astrid. "Let's have a look." Everyone but Morvin and Foon who stayed to fix the Host climbed up the stairwell. Only to find out that it was blocked.

"It's blocked." Astrid pointed out.

"So what do we do?" The Doctor asked.

I shrugged, "We shift it."

The Doctor turned to grin at me, "That's the attitude." He then turned to the rest of the group. "Rickston, Mr Copper and you, Bannakaffalatta…" The Doctor paused, "Look, can I just call you Banna? It's got to save a lot of time."

"No! Bannakaffalatta." The small man insisted.

The Doctor sighed, "All right then, Bannakaffalatta, there's a gap in the middle, see if you can get through." He said gesturing to the small gap.

"Easy. Good." Bannakaffalatta slipped through the small gap easily, making it to the other side. Suddenly the ship gave another lurch, sending loose debris crashing down onto the floor.

"This whole thing could come crashing down any minute!" Rickston shouted. I rolled my eyes. The man was really starting to get on my nerves. I would punch him in the face, if I could get down the stairs to him, and if the Doctor didn't stop pulling me away from him.

It had seemed like the Doctor had lost his patience with him too. "Oh, Rickston, I forgot. Did you get our message?" He asked innocently.

"No. What message?" Rickston frowned.

"_Shut up!" _We said in unison. We turned to grin at each other, while Rickston sent us daggers with his eyes.

"Bannakaffalatta made it!" The red man shouted down to us as he got through to the other side.

"I'm small enough. I can get through." Astrid said, as she pushed herself towards the gap, climbing through.

"Careful!" The Doctor warned her.

"I'm fine." Astrid called back.

"The thing is," Rickston began, "How are Mr and Mrs Fatso going to get through that gap."

"We make the gap bigger." The Doctor growled as he glared at the man. "So, start."

I looked down the stairs, knowing that both Morvin and Foon must have heard him. And it looked like Foon was getting rather upset about it as well. "Don't listen to him Foon." I shouted down to her. "He's a twat. And he's the only jealous because we actually like you two. And we don't like him."

I heard the Doctor smirk at that comment while Rickston just shot me even more daggers. I shot him a glare back as I moved my way up towards the gap as the Doctor turned to frown at me.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm small enough to fit through that gap." I told him as I began to slid through. "I'm gonna go help Astrid and Bannakaffalatta start to move stuff from the other side."

"Be careful." He said seriously.

"I always am." I replied as I carried on climbing through the hole.

_XOXO_

Eventually after a lot of climbing, I got through. I turned around slightly to shout down to the Doctor. "Doctor, we're going to start to clear it from this side." I told him. "Just tell us if it starts to move."

"Bannakaffalatta, what's wrong?" I heard Astrid ask. Her voice was deeply concerned and I turned around to see what was going on. Only to see that Bannakaffalatta was lying on the ground, like he was sick in some sort of way.

"Shh." He told us.

"What is it?" I asked, also growing concerned now.

"Can't say."

The two of us stood up and went over to his side. "Are you hurt?" I asked as I knelt down by his side.

"Ashamed." He said to us. Both me and Astrid shared a look, wondering what the hell he meant.

"Of what?" Astrid asked.

"Poor Bannakaffalatta." He answered. He lifted up his shirt to reveal that his body was entirely made on metal with buttons and wires attached to it.

"You're a cyborg." Astrid gasped slightly.

"Had accident, long ago." Bannakaffalatta explained. "Secret."

"No, but everything's changed now." Astrid said. "Cyborgs are getting equal rights. They passed a law back on Sto. You can even get married."

"Marry you two?" He said looking between the two of us.

I smirked. "Well, how about you buy us a drink first?"

"Come on. Let's recharge you." Astrid said as she pressed a button on this torso. "Just stay there for a bit." She told him as the two of us got up to go start shifting things again.

"Tell no one." He said.

I turned back to look at him. I smiled as I nodded. "We promise."

"What's going on up there?" The Doctor called up.

I rolled my eyes as I looked down at where the Time Lord was standing. "Not much. But I think me and Astrid just got engaged to Bannakaffalatta." I said with a slight laugh, as me and Astrid turned to look at the small man who was also laughing.

"Almost done!" I heard Morvin call up.

"Good, good, good." The Doctor said, turning to the comms. "Mr Frame, how's things?" he asked.

"Doctor, I've got life signs all over the ship, but they're going out one by one." Frame said. I stopped still at that, my stomach turning again. Something wasn't right.

"What is it?" The Doctor asked. "Are they loosing air?"

"No. Well, I'm not sure, but it's the Host." Frame said. "It's something to do with the Host."

"It's working!" Morvin called up. _Oh shit. _I ran over to the gap again, only to see that the Host had grabbed Morvin by the throat as it chanted the word Kill.

"Turn it off!" The Doctor ordered.

Foon tried to turn it off but it was no use. "I can't, Doctor!"

The Doctor finally got down to where Morvin, Foon and the Host where. "Go!" He ordered at Foon as he used his sonic screw driver to try and get the Host off of Morvin.

I rushed back over to the bits of metal that needed to be moved, and me and Astrid started moving them as quick as we could knowing that we needed to get the gap as big as we could, and as quick as we possibly could. I heard the Doctor shout at Rickston to help them, only for Rickston to selfishly refuse. The next second I saw him climbing up the gap towards us.

"Some help you are, you selfish dick!" I hissed at him. Only for him to shoot another glare at me, which I happily returned.

"I'll never get through there." Foon cried.

"Yes you can." Mr Copper told her. "Let me go clear it." I heard him start to climb up, clearing a few bits on his way up, allowing Foon to start climbing up it. She managed to reach the top, and I helped to try and pull her the rest of the way up along with Astrid and Mr Copper.

"No, I'm stuck!" She cried.

"Come on, you can do it." Astrid encouraged.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can." I told her. The top of the tunnel suddenly started to collapse. Mr Copper grabbed a metal poll that was stuck between the bits of rubble and used it to keep the gap up, making it even bigger at the same time. Finally we managed to get Foon through.

"It's going to collapse." Mr Copper said. "Rickston, vot damn it, help me!"

"No way." Rickston replied. I growled at him, shooting him another glare as I rushed over to help Mr Copper keep it up. Foon might have gotten through, but there were still two more people left.

"Morvin, get through!" The Doctor shouted from the other side. Soon we could see Morvin's head pop up as he was trying to get through. But he was finding it lot more difficult to get through that Foon. Astrid tried to pull him up, but it wasn't working.

"Doctor, he's stuck!" I shouted down to him.

"Mr Van Hoof, I know we've only just met, but you'll have to excuse me." Morvin then managed to squeeze through the gap, and I guessed the Doctor most have given him some help from the other side.

"That's it, we've got you." Astrid said.

"Doctor, hurry up!" I shouted as I continued to try and keep the beam up.

The Host was right behind him now. Suddenly the Time Lord turned to look at the Host. "Information override!" He suddenly shouted out. "You will tell me the point of origin of your command structure."

"Doctor, we can't hold it much longer." I shouted down to him in frustration.

"Information: Deck 31."

"Thank you." The Doctor said as he quickly turned and dashed though the gap. "Let's go." Me and Mr Copper let go of the poll just as the Host was coming up. The beam that we had been holding up quickly came crashing down onto the robots head, leaving it to a pile of wires and broken pieces.

_XOXO_

The Doctor, me, Astrid, Morvin, Foon, Mr Copper, Rickston walked into a room which looked like a kitchen. Everything had been relatively undisturbed. At least, the food was still on the plates.

"Morvin, look, food!" Cried in delight when she spotted it.

"Oh, great! Someone's happy." Rickston commented sarcastically. I found myself growling and glaring at him again, and the Doctor quickly moved over to the comms, herding me along with him.

"Don't have any then." Morvin shot back at him.

"Mr Frame, you still there?" The Doctor called into the comms.

"Yes, sir." Frame said. "But I've got Host outside. I've sealed the door."

"They've been programmed to kill. Why would anyone do that?" The Doctor asked.

"That's not the only problem, Doctor. I had to use a maximum deadlock on the door, which means no one can get in. I'm sealed off." Frame told us. "Even if you can fix the Titanic, you can't get to the bridge."

The Doctor sighed, frustrated. "Yeah, right, fine. One problem at a time. What is on Deck 31?" he asked.

"Er, that's down below. That's nothing." Frame said. "It's just the Host storage deck. That's where we keep the robots."

The Doctor looked at the image that had been brought up on the scanner as he put his glasses on. I peered over his shoulder to look at it. "What's that? You see that panel? Black. It's registering nothing, no power, no heat, no light."

"Never seen it before."

"100% shielded." The Doctor muttered. "What's down there?"

"I'll try intensifying the scanner." Frame told him.

"Let me know if you find anything." The Doctor said, taking off his glasses. "And keep those engines going."

"Stay safe, Mr Frame." I added as the Doctor turned to comm off.

"Saved you come." Astrid said as she bounced up to us with a plate of food in her hands. "You might be a Time King from Gannaby, but you still need to eat." I smirked at that. Astrid turned to look at me. "You need to eat as well. There's plenty there for the both of you."

"Thanks." I said smiling. The Doctor and I sat down next to each other, so I could take things from the plate whenever I wanted to and Astrid sat down opposite us.

"So, you look good for 903." Astrid stated.

"You should see me in the mornings." The Doctor said with his mouth full.

"Okay." Astrid said. The two of them suddenly looked up at each other realizing what they both had said, and I tried to stifle a laugh.

"Anyway, you _do not_ want to see him in the mornings." I said taking a bite out of some bread.

The Doctor turned to look at me, a bit hurt. "What's that supposed to mean."

"It means. You, in the morning. Scary."

The Doctor pouted. "Am not."

"Oh, so me and Martha screamed for no reason at all when we saw you in the corridor that morning." The Doctor glared at me and I smirked. "You're really moody in the mornings too."

The Doctor looked like he was about to say something but was cut off as Mr Copper came to join us. "Doctor, it must be well past midnight, Earth time. Christmas Day."

"So it is! Merry Christmas!" The Doctor said again with his mouth full.

"This Christmas thing, what's it all about?" Astrid asked.

"Long story." The Doctor replied. "I should know, I was there. We got the last room."

"But if the planet's waking up, can't we signal them?" Mr Copper asked. "They could send up a rocket or something."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "They don't have spaceships." I told him.

"No, I've read about it. They have shuffles. Space shuffles."

The Doctor and I shared a look before he turned back to Mr Copper. "Mr Copper, this degree in Earthonomics, where is it from?" he asked hesitantly.

"Honestly?"

The two of us nodded. "Just between us." I said.

"Mrs Golightly's Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners." Mr Copper said wiping his head with his hanky as he sat down, ashamed. I smiled at him sadly, at least I was understanding it now.

"You lied to the company? To get the job?" Astrid said.

"I wasted my life on Sto." He told us, tears in his eyes. "I was a travelling salesman, always on the road. And I reached retirement with nothing to show for it. Not even a home. And Earth sounded so exotic.

Both me and the Doctor nodded. "I suppose it is, yeah."

"How come you both know it so well?" Astrid asked.

"I was sort of… A few years ago, I was sort of made… Well, sort of homeless and, um… There was the Earth." The Doctor said.

"And what about you?" Astrid asked me.

I shrugged. "I'm just from there. That's all."

Astrid's eyes widened. "You're from Earth?"

I nodded, smiling. "Yep."

"I thought you were like him." Astrid said gesturing to the Doctor. I simply shook my head.

"The thing is, if we survive this, there'll be police and all sorts of investigations. Now the minimum penalty for space-lane fraud is ten years in jail." Mr Copper said. "I'm an old man. Well, I won't survive ten years."

Suddenly, there was a loud banging against the barricaded door. The Host were trying to get in. The Doctor quickly put down the plate of food we had been sharing as the two of us shot up from our seats. "The Host! Move! Come on!" He shouted out to everyone.

The pounding continued and eventually a dent was formed in the door. We all ran to a door on the opposite side and the Doctor sonic-ed it open to reavel a large space that had a large fire going at the bottom of it, or even a small sun. The only way to get to the other wide that could be seen was a long makeshift bridge, made up of bits of old, rickety metal.

"Is that the only way across?" Rickston asked as he looked down at the bridge.

"On the other hand, it is a way across." The Doctor told him.

"The engines are open." Astrid said, looking down at the ball of fire.

"Nuclear storm drive." The Doctor said. "As soon as it stops the Titanic falls."

"But that thing," Morvin said pointing to the bridge. "It'll never take our weight."

"You're going last, mate." Rickston said snidely.

I turned and shot him a glare. "You really need to start thinking about watching what's coming out of your mouth." I hissed, warning him.

"It's nitrophine metal, it's stronger than it looks." The Doctor snapped at him.

"All the same," Morvin said loudly to be overhead by the sound on the engines. "Rickton's right. Me and Foon should—" He took a step right onto a weak piece of metal near the edge. It gave way and the rail snapped off, and he fell into the engines below, screaming.

"Morvin!" Foon cried.

"No!" I screamed, running towards the edge. Only for the Doctor to grab hold of me, stopping me from going any further.

"I told you." Rickston said. "I told you!" I really wanted to scream at him right then. But Mr Copper beat me to it.

"Just shut up! Shut up!"

Foon was hysterical, falling to her knees. "Bring him back!" She turned to the Doctor. "Can't you bring him back? Bring him back, Doctor!"

"I can't, I'm sorry. I can't." The Doctor told her sorrowfully.

"You promised me!"

"I know." His voice was heavy with guilt. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." We were interrupted as we heard the sound of feet moving behind the door. The Host had already found us.

"Doctor, I rather think that those things have got our scent." Mr Copper said, jerking his thumb towards the door.

"I'm not waiting!" Rickston said as he ran onto the bridge.

"Careful!" The Doctor warned. "Take it slowly!" I took over hugging Foon, while Astrid also tried to comfort the woman who had now just become a widow.

There was another explosion nearby and Rickston was thrown down, nearly falling off the bridge, but he managed to keep himself on it. "Vot, help me!"

"You're okay." The Doctor encouraged him. "A step at a time. Come on, you can do it." As Rickston struggled to try and get himself back on his feet, the echoes of the Host chanting 'kill' could be heard from behind the door.

"They're getting nearer." Mr Copper warned.

"I'll seal us in." The Doctor said rushing over to the door, and using his sonic screw driver to lock it.

"Leaving us trapped wouldn't you say?"

"Never say 'trapped'," The Doctor told him. "Just inconveniently circumstanced."

"Oh!" Mr Copper scoffed. The Doctor then busted the lock, insuring that the Host wouldn't be able to get in.

Rickston was now halfway across the bridge. "I'm okay!" He called out. But everyone ignored him. To be honest I wouldn't even care if he fell into that engine right now. But I was hoping that wouldn't happen. As much was the guy was really getting on my nerves, and I hated him so much. I don't think I could ever really wish death upon someone.

"Maybe he's alright." Foon said, trying to convince herself, but there was something in her voice that told me it wasn't fully working. "Maybe there's a gravity curve down there or something, I don't know. But maybe he's just unconscious."

Astrid shook her head. "I'm sorry Foon." She told her.

I shook my head as well, feeling the tears coming to my eyes. "I'm so sorry, but he's gone."

It was then that Foon broke down. Both me and Astrid pulled her into a hug as she cried. "I can't live without him." She sobbed. I couldn't even begin to comprehend what she was feeling right now. I wouldn't even know what to do if I lost Ryan. Well, in a way, I had. But I still knew that he was alive, and that kept me sane. If I ever found out he had died, I really wouldn't like to think what I'd do.

"Yes!" The cry snapped me thought of my thoughts. I moved my head slightly to see that Rickston had finally gotten over to the other side. And he seemed rather proud about it too. "Oh, yes! Who's good!" I just rolled my eyes as I continued to comfort Foon.

"Bannakaffalatta, you go next." The Doctor ordered.

"Bannakaffalatta is small." He agreed as he hopped onto the bridge.

"Slowly!" The Doctor reminded and Bannakaffalatta complied. The Hosts suddenly started to pound against the door making a dent.

"They've found us." Mr Copper cried out.

"Kat, Astrid, get across right now." The Doctor ordered the two of us.

"What about you?" Astrid objected as she moved towards the bridge.

"Just do it, go on." Astrid complied as she too stepped onto the bridge, just behind Bannakaffalatta. The Doctor then turned to look down to me as I still sat down next to Foon. "Kat, you've got to get across as well."

I shook my head at him. "I'm not leaving her."

The Doctor let out a frustrated sigh. "Kat, do as I say and get on that bridge."

"Not without Foon." I snapped.

"Katherine." I turned to look at Foon who looked at me, trying to force out a week smile. "Do as he says, get on that bridge." I looked between her and the bridge in hesitation before looking up at the Doctor.

"I'll look after her. I promise." He told me. "Now go." Reluctantly I stood up and left Foon, moving onto the bridge behind Astrid. The Doctor then turned around to Mr Copper. "Mr Copper, we can't wait. Don't argue." He said moving him towards the bridge as well. Once he too was on there he went back over to Foon. "Foon, you've got to get across right now."

"What for?" Foon sobbed. "What am I going to do without him?"

"Doctor! The door is locked." Rickston called over.

The Doctor ignored him. "Just think, what would he want, eh?"

"He don't want nothing. He's dead." Foon sobbed again.

"Doctor, I can't open the door!" Rickston persisted. "We need the whirring key thing of yours." _Sonic screwdriver. _I corrected in my head.

"I can't leave her!" he shouted back over as he held onto the sobbing woman. Damn right he couldn't leave her. The only reason I had left is because he had promised me he would look after her.

"She'll get us all killed if we can't get out!"

The Doctor groaned as he looked over at the rest of us who were slowly making our way across the bridge. To be fair, while Rickston was a complete and utter arsehole, he had a fair point. We were going to die if the Doctor didn't open the door now. But at the same time, I didn't want Foon to be left on her own. And it wasn't like I would be able to get back to her if the Doctor did get onto the bridge. It was a narrow bridge and I already had one person behind me. Making his decision, the Doctor turned to look at Foon.

"Mrs Van Hoff, I am coming back for you. All right?" he said in a firm but soft voice.

Foon nodded slightly and the Doctor had his way over to the rest of us on the bridge. He was only a couple of steps in when the metal started to creak at the weight of all of us on there. "Too many people." Bannakaffalatta objected, looking straight at the Doctor.

"Oi! Don't get spiky with me! Keep going!" The five of us slowly made our way across and eventually, we were all spread out, fairly evenly across the bridge, with Bannakaffalatta almost near the end. Suddenly there was another explosion and the bridge shook violently send the five of us to the ground.

"It's going to fall." Astrid said, worried.

"It's just settling." The Doctor reassured us. "Keep going." Suddenly, everything went quiet in a matter of a second. The pounding had stopped leaving the creaking of the bridge the only noise in the room.

"They've stopped." Astrid breathed.

"Gone away?" Bannakaffalatta asked.

"Why have they stopped?" I asked, my brows furrowed on confusion.

The Doctor nodded, "Why would they give up?"

"Never mind that, keep coming." Rickston called to us.

The Doctor just ignored him again. "Where have they gone?" he asked, mainly to himself. "Where are the host?"

"Well," Mr Copper said nervously. "I'm afraid, we've forgot the traditions of Christmas. That angels have wings!" He pointed to up above us as we all looked up to see five Host descending, surrounding us.

"Oh, fuck." I muttered to myself.

"Imformation: Kill."

"Arm yourself, all of you!" The Doctor cried out.

The Doctor grabbed a piece of piping from nearby. The rest of us followed suit ready to defend ourselves as the angels threw their halos at us. As a halo began hurtling towards me, I held my pipe like a baseball bat and slammed it away. I was slightly impressed at myself. For someone who studied physical education, I wasn't one who was good at playing games like baseball. I was more better at athletics, especially at track. Hence why I wasn't so bad with the running.

I was doing pretty well until I was distracted by someone yelping out in pain. I turned around to see that, that someone was the Doctor, whose arm had been grazed by a halo. Another one caught Mr Copper on the hip and another struck Astrid to the ground. Only me and Bannakaffalatta were the last ones standing. And that wasn't for a long as a halo that I hadn't seen hit me in the side, sending me to the floor.

"Ow. Shit." I gasped as I held onto my side in pain.

"I can't." Astrid sobbed, the pain becoming too much for her as well.

"Bannakaffalatta stop!" The small man cried, throwing down his metal pipe, surprising all of us. "Bannakaffalatta proud." He said looking down at me and Astrid. "Bannakaffalatta cyborg!" He ripped open his shirt, sending a huge wave to blue energy out. The Host began sparking and shaking as four of them fell into the engine. The last one falling behind the Doctor with a thump.

"Electromagnetic pulse took out the robotics." The Doctor said. "Oh! Bannakaffalatta, that was brilliant!" But then with a loud beeping noise, Bannakaffalatta fell to the floor. With a gasp, both me and Astrid scrambled over to his side.

"He's used all his power! Astrid called out.

"Did good?" Bannakaffalatta asked.

I smiled sadly at him, "You saved our lives."

"Bannakaffalatta happy."

"We can recharge you, get you to the power point, just plug you in." Astrid said desperately. I nodded, going to press the button on his torso when he placed a hand on top of mine, stopped me.

"Too late." He told us.

"No, but… You've got to get us those drinks, remember?" I said, trying to force out a smile as my voice broke. I was barely holding it together.

Bannakaffalatta smiled at the two of us. "Pretty girls." He murmured before his eyes fluttered shut, never to open again. It was then I started to cry, sobs shaking my body. First Morvin and now Bannakaffalatta, it was all starting to become too much. I turned to the Doctor who said nothing, knowing that there was nothing to say. Instead he just gave me a sad smile. Through her tears Astrid began to button up his tiny little shirt when Mr Copper stopped her, reaching for the power source.

"I'm sorry," He apologized. "Forgive me."

"Don't touch him." I said through my sobs.

"Leave him alone." Astrid added as she tried to button up his shirt again.

"It's the EMP transmitter. He-he'd want us to use it." Mr Copper said as he removed the metal cylinder. "I used to sell these things. They'd always give me a bed for the night in the cyborg caravans. They're good people. But if we can recharge it, we can use it as a weapon against the rest of the Host." He told us. "Bannakaffalatta might have saved us all."

"Do you think?" Rickston spoke up again. "Try telling him that." He pointed behind us. We all turned around to see the Host that had fallen behind of the Doctor, grabbing it's halo, trying to get up.

"Doctor…" I said nervously.

"Use the EMP!" Rickston shouted.

"It's dead." Mr Copper replied.

"It's got to have an emergency-"

"No, no. Hold on." The Doctor said, confronting the Host. "Hold the line. Loophole. Security protocol ten… Six, six, six… Twenty One. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight… Um, I don't know, forty two? Uh… One!" The Host who had been ready to strike the Doctor with its halo, suddenly stopped and stood there passively.

"Information: State request."

"Good…Right." The Doctor said in relief. "You've been ordered to kill the survivors, but why?"

"Information: No witnesses."

"But the ship's going to fall on the Earth and kill everyone." The Doctor said. "The human race has got nothing to do with the Titanic, so that contravenes your orders, yes?"

"Information: Incorrect."

The Doctor frowned. "But why do you want to destroy the Earth?"

"Information: It is the plan."

"What plan?" The Doctor asked.

"Information: The protocol grants you only three questions. These three questions have been used."

"Well, you could have warned me." The Doctor grumbled.

"Information: Now you will die."

The Host lifted its halo once again, getting ready to strike the Doctor. The Doctor picked up a bit of pipe again, ready to hit it back and defend himself when suddenly, a piece of rope was thrown around its head and tightened around is body by Foon herself.

"You're coming with me." She snarled as she finished tightening the rope. She then closed her eyes and jumped of off the side towards the engines, taking the Host down with her.

"No!" The Doctor shouted as he fell to his knees, reaching out for her. But it was too late.

"Foon!" I shrieked. Tears coming to my eyes again as I watched her fall to her death, helplessly.

Everything was quiet for a moment, except the gasps that were coming from Astrid's mouth and the sobs from mine. The Doctor stood up, back onto his feet with a determined scowl on his face. "No more." He growled as he turned over to look at me again, repeating it. But this time in a more softer tone. "No more."

_XOXO_

The Doctor kicked down some more debris that had been blocking our way and lead us into another maintenance corridor. "Right," he said as he turned around to the rest of us. "Get yourself over to Reception One. Once you're there, Mr Copper, you've got staff access to the computer. Try and find a way of transmitting an SOS. Kat, Astrid, you're both in charge of this." He handed over the EMP to us. "Once it's powered up, it'll take out Host within 50 yards, but then it needs 60 seconds to recharge. Got it? Rickston," He turned to the man, presenting him with his sonic screwdriver. "Take this. I've pre-set it; just hold down the button, it'll open the doors. If you still have a problem, get Kat to help you. Do not lose it! You got that?" Rickston nodded. "Now, go and open the next door. Go on! Go!"

"Alright!" Rickston said, running down the hall.

The Doctor grabbed a first aid kit from nearby. "Mr Copper, I need you fighting fit." He said, shoving it into his arms. "Astrid, where's the power point?" he asked her.

"Under the comms." She replied. The three of us rushed over to the power point as the Doctor showed us how to re-charge it.

"It'll beep when it's ready." He told us. "That blue light comes on there."

"You're talking as if you're not coming with us." Astrid said. I already knew for a fact that he wasn't coming with us. I could see it in his face. But he was stupid to think that he was going alone.

"There's something down of Deck 31. I'm going to find out what it is." The Doctor told her.

"_We're."_ I corrected. "We're going to find out what it is. I'm coming with you."

The Doctor gave me a look as he shook his head. "Oh, no, you're not."

I nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Kat, it's not safe."

I scoffed. "What? And this is safe?" I sighed. "Doctor, I'm not leaving you I've already had to do that once already, for a whole year. I'm not doing it again. I'm coming with you." The Doctor went to say something back, put I put my hand up to stop him. "No arguments."

The Doctor let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "Oh, all right, you can come." I flashed a grin at him. "But you going to be careful all right? You don't leave my side. You got that?"

"Understood."

The Doctor nodded. "Good."

"What if you meet a Host?" Astrid asked.

"Well, then I'll—" I shot him a look. "_We'll_ just… have some fun."

"Sounds like you two do this kind of thing all the time." Astrid commented.

I shrugged. "We do, basically."

"Not by choice." The Doctor defended. "All we do is travel. That's what we are, just a couple of travellers. Imagine it. No tax, no bills, no boss. Just the open sky."

"I'm sort of… unemployed now. I was thinking that blue box is kind of small, but I could squeeze in." Astrid said. "Like a stowaway."

"It's not always safe." The Doctor told her, seriously.

"So you need someone to take care of you." she said looking between the two of us. "I've got no one back on Sto, no family. Just me. So what do you think? Can I come with you?"

The Doctor paused for a moment as he considered it. His eyes then turned to me, giving me a look as if to ask what I thought about it. I smiled slightly, happy that he was even putting my opinion into consideration. I just nodded. I'd love for Astrid to come with us. Over the short period of time we had been together, I had grown quite a bond with her. I would even consider her to be one of my friends.

The Doctor's face broke into a smile. "Yeah, we'd like that Yeah." The ship lurched again and the Doctor managed to stand up and talked into the comms. "Mr Frame, you still with us?"

"It's the engines, sir. Final phase. There's nothing I can do." He told us. "We've only got eight minutes left!"

"Don't worry, we'll get there." The Doctor reassured him.

"But the bridge is sealed off." Frame protested.

"Yeah, yeah, working on it." The Doctor told him. "We'll get there, Mr Frame, somehow." The EMP bepped, signalling it was ready. "You charged up?" Astrid nodded and the Doctor turned to everyone else. "Mr Copper look after her." He said pointing to Astrid. "Astrid, look after him." He said pointing to Mr Copper. He then turned to Rickston, um… look after yourself. And we'll see you again, I promise."

We turned to leave when Astrid stopped us. "Hold on!" she called out. "There's an old tradition on planet Sto."

The Doctor turned around to her. "Yeah, we've really got to go."

"Just wait a minute." Astrid told him.

She grabbed the first aid kit box from Mr Copper, and set in down on the floor in front of the Doctor. He looked confused as to what was going on, but I was starting to get an idea. She stood on top of the box, making her near enough around the Doctor's height. She then grabbed the Doctor by his jacket, pulled him towards her and kissed him. I smirked slightly as she finally released the Doctor who looked rather bemused.

"Yeah, that's a… Very old tradition, yeah."

Astrid then hopped down the from the box and pulled me into a hug. "You be careful."

I returned the hug and nodded. "Always."

The Doctor then headed off again with me beside him. "See you later!" Astrid called out to both of us.

The Doctor turned around and grinned. "Oh, yes!"

_XOXO_

The two of us ran into the kitchen, only to come face to face with two Hosts. We both turned around, about to leave the way we had come in, when another two Hosts came through that way as well. We were surrounded. The Doctor grabbed a pot from nearby; ready to use is as a weapon as he pulled me over to the side of him. "Wait, wait, wait, wait! Security protocol one! Do you hear me? One! One!" The Host stopped advancing and stood there passively. The two of us let out a sigh of relief as the Doctor put the pot down. "Okay. That gives me three questions. Three questions to save our lives, am I right?"

"Information: Correct."

"Doctor!" I hissed as the waste of a question.

"No, that wasn't one of them." The Doctor defended. "I didn't mean it. That's not fair! Can I start again?"

"Information: No."

I rolled my eyes as I moved my hand colliding it with the back of his head. "Ow!" He complained. "Did you just slap me?"

"Seems like it, yeah." I nodded.

"But, what for?" He whined.

"Because you wasted two out of three questions." I told him. "You idiot."

"But they weren't supposed to be questions!" He defended.

"Maybe so. But you still wasted them." I pointed out.

"So you slapped me?"

"Yes!"

The Doctor pouted as he turned back to the Host. "One question left. One question. So, you've been given orders to kill the survivors, but survivors must therefore be passengers or staff, but not me or Kat. We're not passengers, we're not staff. Go on. Scan us. You must have bio records. No such people on board." The Host looked up as they finished their scan. "We don't exist, therefore, you can't kill us. Therefore, we're stowaways. And stowaways should be arrested and taken to the nearest figure of authority." He chucked the pot down onto the floor. "And I reckon, the nearest figure of authority is on Deck 31. Final question, am I right?"

"Information: Correct." I relaxed a bit. We had found a way to Deck 31 without getting killed. And now we also knew that there was someone down there.

"Brilliant." The Doctor stood up straight. "Take me to your leader." He turned to me and grinned. "I've always wanted to say that."

I just rolled my eyes at him. "You child."

_XOXO_

The Host led me and the Doctor into the storage facility on Deck 31. There was some structural damage, just like the rest of the ship, which surprised me a bit given the Doctor, had said that this place was 100% shielded. There were even some small fires.

"Wow. Now that is what you call a fixer-upper." The Doctor commented as he looked around "Come on, then. Host with the most, this ultimate authority of yours, who is it?" Just then two doors open and we spun around to look at it, the Doctor seeing something he recognised right away. "Ooh, that's clever. That's an Omnistate impact chamber. Indestructible. You could survive anything in there." A vehicle of some sort started to roll towards us, through all the steam and smoke. "You could sit through a supernova. Or a shipwreck. Only one person could have the power and the money to hide themselves on board like this. And I should know 'cause…" he drifted off, leaving whoever was in the vehicle to finished it.

"My name is Max." The one and only Max Capricorn finished off as he finally came out of all the smoke. It turned out that the vehicle seemed to be some sort of life support for him, with his head attacked to it. He smiled, and his golden tooth glinted.

"Oh my God." I said, looking at him, bewildered. "It _really_ does that?" It was bad another on some cheesy little advert, but in real life? It was just ridiculous. The Doctor just frowned at the man as he looked at him. He was completely different from the man that we had seen in the advert. For one his body was now just some sort of metal box, the only thing left of his actual body being his head. And he was also now blind in one eye.

"Who the hell is this?" Max spat, looking at the two of us.

"Oh, I'm the Doctor." He said introducing himself. "And this is Katherine Stewart."

I waved at him, "Hey there."

"Information: Stowaways."

"Well…" The Doctor said.

"Kill them." Max ordered.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, wait!" The Doctor said, holding out his hands in attempt to stop the Host. "You can't, not now, come on, Max. You'll give me so much good material, like how to get ahead in business." He looked around only to see that no one was laughing at his joke. "See, head. Head. Head in the… No?" He turned to look at me, I just shook my head. "Not even a little bit funny?" I shrugged.

"Oh, ho, ho, the office joker." Max said preciously after a moment. "I like a funny man. No one's been funny with me for years."

"And I wonder why." I replied, sarcastically, making the Doctor smirk a bit.

"176 years of running the company have taken their toll."

"Yeah, but nice wheels." The Doctor commented, scratching his neck.

"No! A life support system." Max told him. "In a society that despises cyborgs, I've had to hide away for years. Running the company by hologram." He turned to the Host. "Host, situation report."

"Information: Titanic is still in orbit."

"Let me see." Max said suspiciously. He wheeled himself forward and the Doctor pulled me out of his way. "We should have crashed by now. What's gone wrong?" He stopped as he reached the edge and looked over at the engines. "The engines are still running! They should have stopped."

"When they do, the Earth gets roasted." The Doctor said "I don't understand. What's the Earth got to do with it?"

"This interview is terminated!" Max snapped as he wheeled away.

"No, no, no, no! Hold on! Hold on! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" The Doctor cried running in front of Max's retreating vehicle, holding his hands out to stop him. "I can work it out. It's a like a task. I'm your apprentice, just watch me. So… the business is failing and you wreck the ship, so that makes things even worse. Oh, yes! No… Yes." I frowned at him slightly. "The business isn't failing, it's failed. Past tense."

"My own board voted me out." Max told us. "Stabbed me in the back!"

"If you _had_ a back." I commented.

"So," The Doctor continued. "You scupper the ship, wipe out any survivors, just in case anyone's rumbled you, and the Board find their shares halved in value. Oh, but that's not enough." Max shook his head. "No. Because if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, it destroys the entire planet. Outrage back home. Scandal! The business is wiped out."

"And the whole Board thrown in jail for mass murder." Max continued, grinning.

"While you just sit there safe inside the impact chamber." I finished, my voice sounding disgusted.

"I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins," Max said. "And enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches on Penhaxico II. Where the ladies, so I'm told, are very fond of metal."

"So that's the plan?" The Doctor said, his voice a low growl. "A retirement plan. 2,000 people on this ship, six billion underneath us, all of them slaughtered! And why? Because Max Capricorn is a _loser_!"

"I never lose!" Max hissed, moving closer towards us. I clenched my fists in anger, wishing I could punch him, a small growl coming from my lips. The Doctor was just as bad.

"You can't even sink the Titanic." I spat at him.

"Oh, but I can, little girl." Max contradicted. "I can cancel the engines from here!" Suddenly, alarms began to blare through the room.

"You can't do this!" The Doctor cried.

"Host, hold them!" Max ordered. Four Host came up from behind us and grabbed us by the arms, hauling us back.

"Not so clever now, Doctor." Max sneered. "It's a shame we couldn't work together. You're rather good. All that banter, yet not a word wasted. You're not bad either." He said turning to me. "But for a sweet looking girl you do seem to be rather angry and violent." He added looking down at my still clenched fists. "Time for me to retire. The Titanic is falling, the sky will burn! Let the Christmas inferno commence! Oh! Oh, Host! Kill them." Two Host which didn't have a hold of us took of their halos ready to strike at us.

"Mr Capricorn!" Our heads snapped over to where we had heard Astrid's voice coming from. She was sitting up in a forklift, raring to go. "I resign." And with that she charged towards Max.

"No!" I cried.

"Astrid, don't!" The Doctor shouted at her.

Astrid simply ignored the both of us. She crashed into Max's life support system just with enough force, managing to get the front of the forklift under the life support unit. Max tried to move back, but found his tires had no purchase. Astrid then began trying to push him back, but she was having no such luck. The Hosts who were just about to use their halos to kill me and the Doctor, threw them towards Astrid. She cried out in alarm as they hurtled towards her. But thankfully they missed her… but they hit something else.

"He's cut the break line!" The Doctor cried.

It was then that everything seemed to happen in slow motion as everything went quiet. Astrid turned to look at the two of us, an understanding passing through all three of us. I shook my head; shouting 'no' and I could see in the corner of my eye that the Doctor was shouting the exact same thing. But I couldn't hear anything. It was all quiet. Astrid gave as a look which I knew meant 'sorry' as she turned back to face Max. She rose up the forklift, lifting up Max even higher. She then stomped hard on the accelerator. They broke through the gate and the two of them fell of the edge.

"Astrid!" The two of us screamed out. We both broke free of the grasps that the robots had on us. By the time we reached the edge it was too late. We watched in horror as Astrid fell down into the engines, all the while her hands reaching out to us.

I continued to stare down over the ledge in shock. I began shaking controllably as I sobbed, tears streaming down my face without care. I didn't even notice that the ship jolted violently. To be honest, I didn't even care anymore. I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder and I flinched. Turning around to look through my teary eyes I realized it was the Doctor. He said nothing. He just took hold of both of my hands, lifting me up off of the floor as he lead me away from the edge, letting me lean on him as I carried on shaking and crying.

Sparks fell behind us as we walked along. Eventually the Doctor stopped, moving me around so that I was facing him. He pulled me closer to him and hugged me as I continued crying into his jacket, soaking it with tears. He soon let go as two Host came over, but he made sure that my arms were still tightly wrapped around him. With a click of his fingers the Host linked arms with him. With a nod they flew upwards, carrying me and the Doctor with him, gaining speed. With their arms raised, hands shaped into fists, they broke through the floor of the bridge, causing Frame to scream. The Doctor climbed out of the hole in the floor dragging me alone with him. He gave me another quick hug, kidding me on the forehead before we both let go and he turned to Frame.

"Midshipman Frame, at last!"

"Uh, b-but the Host!" Frame stuttered, staring at the Host in fear.

"Controller dead, they divert to the next highest authority." The Doctor explained. "And that's me."

"There's nothing we can do. There's no power. The ships gonna fall." Frame said. I wiped my eyes, trying to get it back together. There was no use in my crying, not when we were about to crash into the Earth. I needed to make myself useful.

"_**Titanic falling."**_

"What's your first name?" The Doctor asked as I walked over to join him.

"Alonzo." I stared at the man wide eyed. Was he being serious?

"You're kidding me?" The Doctor said with the same facial expression as mine.

"What?" Alonzo asked.

"There's something else I've always wanted to say." The Doctor grinned manically. "_Allons-y_ Alonzo!"

He then threw the wheel, trying to steer it as best as he could. The ship lurched dramatically as it started falling straight into the Earth's atmosphere. Alarms started blaring and Alonzo screamed as the Doctor fought to control the steering. Another alarm sounded from the computer and I ran over to it, the computer showing where the impact zone was going to be. I stared it wide eyed. "You've got to be joking." I said more to myself. "Uh, Doctor…" The Doctor leaned over from the wheel to look and let out groaned when he too saw where it was.

Seeing a phone, he reached out to it and dialled. "Hello, yes, could you get me Buckingham Palace?" They quickly put him through. The Doctor didn't even give them time to speak. "Listen to me, security code 771. Now get out of there!" And with that he put the phone down.

"_**Engine active. Engine active."**_ The computer announced. The Doctor pulled back the wheel as far as it would possibly go, sending me and Alonzo flying back against the wall. Slowly, we began to right ourselves as we barely just missed Buckingham Palace, sailing just above it. I sighed in relief and now out of danger, the Doctor began steering with ease.

I heard the ships bell ring and turned to see that it was Alonzo ringing it. "Whoo-hoo!"

Both me and the Doctor laughed as we joined in. "Whoo-hoo-hoo!"

_XOXO_

Once we were at a safe height, the Doctor came over and sat on the floor next to me and Alonzo. "Used the heat of re-entry to fire up the secondary storm drive." He said. "Unsinkable, that's me."

"We made it." Alonzo said smiling as he leaned up against the wall.

"Not all of us." I replied as I stared off into space. Trying to fight back to tears again.

"Teleport!" The Doctor suddenly cried out as he jumped up off of the floor. "She was wearing a teleport bracelet!" He ran out of the room before I could even get up to follow after him. Helping Alonzo up, we both ran out of the room as well, following him as quickly as we could. We followed him into Reception One where Mr Copper and Rickston were still waiting for us.

"Rickston!" The Doctor called out. "Sonic!" Rickston complied as he threw it over to him. "Mr Copper, the teleports, have they got emergency settings?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mr Copper said as he joined the Doctor over and the teleport controls. "They should have."

"She fell, Mr Copper, she fell." the Doctor told him. "What's the emergency code?" he asked as he started fiddling around with the controls. I frowned slightly, wondering what he was doing.

"Let me see."

"Doctor?" I said walking over to him. "What are you doing?"

"We can bring her back." He told me simply. I looked at him wide-eyed grinning. There was something in my back of my head, telling me it wasn't going to work, but I ignored it. I wanted Astrid back, she was one of my friends now. And if there was a chance that we could get her back, I was going to take it.

"If a passenger has an accident on shore leave and they're still wearing their teleport, the molecules are automatically suspended and held in stasis." Mr Copper explained to me and Alonzo, who was also wondering what, was going on. "So if we just trigger the ship's—"

"There!" The Doctor cried, flicking a leaver. He turned around and a glowing but transparent Astrid appeared a few feet away from us.

"I'm falling."

"Only halfway there. Come on!" The Doctor said moving back to the teleport controls to start working on them again. It was then that I realized that this wasn't really going to work and I felt my heart sink.

"Keep falling."

"Feedback the molecule grid. Boost it with the restoration matrix…" he sonic-ed the wires, but suddenly the controls sparked. "No, no, no, no, no! Need more phase containment."

"Doctor…" I said softly.

"No! If I can just link up the surface suspension."

"Doctor, she's gone." Mr Copper tried to tell him. But the Doctor just ignored him.

"I need to override the safety… I can do this. I can do it!"

I sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Doctor." I said, almost in tears again. "Just let her go."

The Doctor looked at him, then to Astrid and then back to the controls. He stood up and kicked them in frustration. "I can do anything!"

"No." I said, choking on a sob. "You can't. You're a brilliant man, and you're capable of a lot of things. But this... this is one thing you can't do. You can't bring someone back to life." The Doctor looked down at me, about to say something, but I already knew what he was going to say. "I know. Trust me. I know. I want her back too. But we can't." I took a shaky breath, wiping a few tears away. "Just let her go."

The Doctor slowly walked away from me and towards Astrid. "Astrid Peth, citizen of Sto, the woman who looked at the stars and dreamt or travelling. There's an old tradition." He bent down so that he was at her level and he kissed her. He slowly let go and looked at her sadly. "Now you can travel forever." Using his sonic screwdriver, he opened one of the windows behind Astrid. She turned into specs on bright violet light and she flew out of the window. "You're not falling Astrid, you're flying."

It was then I started to lose it again. Shakily, I walked up to the Doctor. Trying my best to stop crying, not that it was any use. The Doctor turned to me and sighed, pulling me into another hug as I cried into his jacket yet again as few tears of his own fell onto my cardigan.

_XOXO_

Alonzo walked up to us a short while after. The Doctor was leaning against a table, staring straight ahead of him, his face completely blank. I was going pretty much the same thing, except I was staring at the floor. I had really only barely just noticed Alonzo. "The engines have stabilised." He told us. "We're holding steady until we get help, and I've sent the SOS. The recuse ship should be here in 20 minutes. And they're digging out the records on Max Capricorn. It should be quite a story."

"They'll want to talk to all of us, I suppose." Mr Copper said, dejectedly.

"I'd have thought so." Alonzo replied. Ignorant to what Mr Copper even meant. "Yeah."

Mr Copper walked over to the two of us, leaning against the reception desk nearby. "I think, uh, one or two inconvenient truths might come to light." He mumbled. "Still, it's my own fault. And ten years in jail is better than dying."

Just then, Rickston walked over to us. His eyes were red rimmed. Maybe everything that had happened today had finally caught up on him. I may have even started to feel some slight sympathy for him. "Doctor," he sobbed. "I never said… Thank you." Then, to my own surprise, he pulled the Doctor into a hug. The Doctor, however, did nothing in response. He just stood there, still blank. "The funny thing is, I said Max Capricorn was falling apart. Just before the crash, I sold all my shares. Transferred them to his rivals. It's made me rich. What do you think of that?"

It was then that I finally looked up from the floor. I looked up at him, any sympathy I had felt for him gone in a flash. Another glare was sent his way as another growl escaped from my lips. My fists clenched, and within seconds my fist swung around, hitting Rickston directly in the nose, sending the horrible man stumbling back. "That's what I think." I hissed at him.

Rickston turned to look at the Doctor, obviously expecting him to pull me away like he had done countless times today. But instead he just gave the man a chilling blank stare. Rickston hufffed, pulling out his vone as it started ringing. He sent me one last glare before he answered the phone and walked away, still slightly shocked. "Those shares, I want them triple bonded and locked."

"Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he?" Mr Copper asked us as he watched Rickston walk away. "But if you could chose, if you could both decide who lives and who dies," The old man shrugged. "That would make you two monsters."

The Doctor looked at him, and sighed. "Mr Copper," he began, grabbing three teleport bracelets from behind him, holding one out to him. "I think you deserve one of these." Mr Copper smiled as us as he put his bracelet on. Alonzo saw this and mouthed 'hey' as he stood up. I just placed a finger on my lip as if to say 'sh' as I smirked.

"Take care." I told him. The Doctor turned and started the machine. Before the three of us disappeared, Alonzo saluted us and the Doctor saluted him back.

_XOXO_

"So Great Britain is part of, uh, 'Europee', and just across the British Channel you've got Great France and Great Germany." Mr Copper said, trying to recite some of the information that we had given him, as we walked towards the TARDIS with had landed in an open field near London, which covered in snowflakes which were still falling down to the floor.

"No, no, it's just France and Germany." The Doctor corrected him.

"Only Britain is great." I added, smugly.

"And they're all at war with the continent of Ham-erica?" Mr Copper asked.

"No." The Doctor said. "Well, not yet. Uh… You could argue that one." Finally we arrived at the TARIDS. I grinned as I leaned up against the doors. "There she is." The Doctor said patting his ship. "Survive anything."

"You know, between you and me, I don't even think this snow is real." Mr Copper said, looking up at the snow falling from the sky. "I think it's the ballast from the Titanic salvage entering the atmosphere."

The Doctor looked up at the sky and nodded lightly. "Yeah. One of these days it might snow for real."

"So, I suppose you'll be off." Mr Copper stated. I nodded at him.

"The open sky." The Doctor answered.

"And, uh, what about me?" The old man asked.

"We travel alone." The Doctor told him. I looked up at the Doctor and frowned slightly as his statement of '_we'_, but eventually I just smiled at him. The Doctor looked down at me and smile back before turning back to Mr Copper. "It's best that way."

"Uh, what am I supposed to do?" Mr Copper asked.

The Doctor held his hand out. "Give me that credit card." Mr Copper complied, handing it over to him.

"Well, it's just petty cash, spending money. It's all done by computer." He told the Doctor. "I didn't really know the currency, so I thought a million might cover it." My eyes nearly popped out of my head then. _What?!_

"A million? Pounds?" I almost choked.

"Is that enough for trinkets?" Mr Copper asked, worried.

"Mr Copper, a million pounds is worth 50 million credits." The Doctor told him.

Mr Copper frowned slightly. "How much?" He asked. Sure had heard wrong.

"50 million and 56." The Doctor calculated quickly.

"I-I've got money!" Mr Copper gasped.

"Yes, you have." I said, smirking as the Doctor handed Mr Copper back his credit card.

"Oh, my word." Mr Copper said, still slightly shocked. "Oh, my Vot! Oh, my goodness me! I… Ya-ha!" He laughed with joy.

"It's all yours, planet Earth." The Doctor said, gesturing to everything in front of us. "Now that's a retirement plan." He laughed slightly. But just you be careful, though."

"I will. I will, oh, I will!"

"No interfering." The Doctor continued. "I don't want any trouble, just… Just have a nice life."

"But I can have a house, a proper house, with a garden and a door!" He looked up at the two of us. "Oh, Doctor, Katherine, I will make you proud." He hugged the two of us. "And I can have a kitchen with chairs and windows and plates!" He carried on as he began skipped off, laughing.

The Doctor paused as he unlocked the TARDIS doors. "Um, where are you going?" he asked.

"I've no idea!" He called back.

"No. We don't either." The Doctor muttered as he finally unlocked the doors, ready to step inside when Mr Copper called out again.

"But, Doctor! Katherine!" The two of us turned around again. "I won't forget her." The two of us nodded. I looked up at the sky to see a purple streak, zigzagging across the sky. I looked up down to look at Mr Copper who was skipping away again.

"Merry Christmas, Mr Copper." The Doctor said softly as he stepped inside the TARDIS. I paused, looking up at the sky again to see the purple streak again and I smiled.

Astrid wasn't gone, not really. She was still out there. She could follow the two of us as we travelled across the stars, watching us run around, saving civilisations and just generally being idiots. And I knew there was one thing I was going to do for her.

I was going to make her proud.

_In Memory of  
VERITY LAMBERT OBE  
1935-2007_

_XOXO_

**Authors Note: The end. Well, for now anyway. I can't believe I've got another chapter done. And you haven't even had to wait a month! *pats self on the back* But still, it feels like its taken ages to write this chapter. It would have been quicker if every time I came on my laptop to write, I'd end up going on tumblr for like 5 hours. I, my dear readers, am the Queen of procrastination. **

**Anyway, I have a question for you…**

**So I was thinking of doing a few Torchwood episodes from season 2, the ones that have Martha in. I just want Kat to meet the team before the Stolen Earth shenanigans. Especially Owen. Because he's my favourite. **

**So anyway, yes, or no? I want your opinions on it. Because I don't want to do it when everyone hates the idea. So please review, even if it's just to state your opinion, I don't care, I just need to know.**

**So anyway, see you next time whether it will be 'Reset' or 'Partners in Crime'… you'll have to wait and find out. ;)**


	3. Reset

**This hasn't been proof-read yet. I wanted to get something up before Christmas, so sorry for any mistakes. **

I opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped outside, the Doctor following shortly after. Moving my hair out of my eyes, I looked over towards the bay and smiled. I couldn't even begin to explain how happy I was. It had been good couple of weeks since the whole Titanic shenanigans, and since then nothing had really happened… Well, except for getting chased out of Barcelona, but that's a whole other story. We did the usual, just travelling. Although, we did just stay in the TARIDS on occasional days watching movies when one of us couldn't be bothered to do anything else. It hadn't been boring, travelling is never boring. But it hadn't been all the trouble that we were used to. Until now.

Martha had phoned, like I had expected her to sooner or later. She told us about something strange going on, can't exactly remember what, I was too busy trying to help the Doctor cook eggs without burning them at the time. I'm sure she'll remind us when we see her anyway. She told us she was going to be working with Torchwood on it. Jack's Torchwood. Torchwood One hasn't been re-built, thank God. She said the two of us could come down if we wanted to, said they could use the Doctor's brains. And of course, Jack was expecting us anyway. And, well, I get to meet the Torchwood team… I wasn't going to refuse.

So here we were, Cardiff. The Doctor had parked the TARDIS in the usual place he parks it when we're in Cardiff, and we were now awaiting for Martha to come find us. This wasn't long as I heard someone running up from behind me. I managed to turn around just in time as Martha practically lunged at me, pulling me into a hug. It took me a few seconds before I actually hugged her back.

"Didn't think you were gonna come." Martha commented as she pulled out of the hug to look at me, trying to see how much I had changed. I did the exact same. She had put most of the weight back on now, so I'm guessing it had been a few months since everything had happened. A lot longer than it had happened for me and the Doctor at least.

"Well, it's been strangely quiet, and I think we miss the trouble." I said giving a half shrug. "And I get to meet the Torchwood team, how could I resist." I saw the Doctor roll his eyes in the corner of my eye at that comment.

"We've been through this, Kat. No fangirling."

"And I said I won't."

Martha just laughed at the two of us. "You two obviously haven't changed. Anyway, we best be getting down there." She said, turning around on her heel as she headed towards the bay. "Jack will be waiting."

Martha led the way down towards the bay, even though I pretty much knew the way anyway. We got to the little tourist office which they used as the cover up for the base. I felt myself start to get even more excited when the Doctor suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"This," he said pointing to the office. "This is Torchwood?" Me and Martha just nodded. "Doesn't look very flashy."

I rolled my eyes at him. "It is a _secret _base, Doctor."

The Doctor said nothing back as we walked further towards the door. Stuck onto it was a poster showing that Slitheen woman when she had been elected as mayor. Me and the Doctor turned to each other smirking as Martha opened the door, the bell ringing to signal that we were there. The three of us stepped inside to see Ianto Jones, sitting at the desk, flicking through some magazine. It was taking everything in me not to scream, now I know what the Doctor meant by fangirling.

"Sorry, we're closing." He said to us and he looked up. We said nothing in response. Martha just held up some form on ID card. The Doctor followed suit pulling out his psychic paper, and Ianto quickly jump up from his seat. "Excuse me, Sir, Ma'am's." He pressed a button which opened a door towards the base and gestured for us to walk through. As the three of us walked through door after door after door, I heard Ianto call to Jack over the intercom. "Jack, your VIP visitors are here." I smirked at that. VIP visitor? Does that mean we get a tour?

The final door to the base began to slowly open and I saw Jack standing there grinning. "Suddenly, in an underground mortuary on a wet night in Cardiff, I hear the song of two nightingales." It was then that Owen, Gwen and Toshiko came over to join him. "Miss Martha Jones and Miss Katherine Stewart." The Doctor pouted slightly at the fact that he hadn't been mentioned, which Jack caught sight of. "Oh, and the Doctor of course." Jack winked at him causing him to roll his eyes.

"Wait, _the Doctor?" _Owen asked.

"The Doctor you keep mentioning?" Gwen added. Although and answer wasn't really needed, they probably knew that he was anyway. The Doctor just smirked slightly as he waved at all of them. I left the Doctor's side as I bounded up towards Jack, who picked me up and started spinning me around. He finally put me down as he gave me a proper up.

"Oh, I've missed you." Jack just winked at me as Martha also gave him a hug. Him and the Doctor both just done those salute things that they do before Jack turned to the rest of the team.

"Katherine, Martha, Doctor, meet…"

"Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Gwen Copper and Ianto Jones." I finished for him, pointing to each one of them as I got to their names. The four of them all turned to look at me cocking an eyebrow and I saw the Doctor start to scratch his head awkwardly from the corner of my eye.

Jack just nodded, although he did seem a bit surprised. "Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Ianto, meet Martha, the Doctor and Katherine… Although, I like to call her Kitty."

"How does she know our names?" Gwen asked suspiciously.

Jack just shrugged. "We could give you a very long story, but let's just say Kitty knows everything."

"Uh, just a casual visit… or?" Owen asked as Martha picked up her bags.

"I'm here to complete your post-mortem." Martha answered him as she walked past him, making Owen frown.

"Dr Jones is from UNIT." Jack sait to Owen as him and the rest of us all followed Martha over towards the med bay.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry. I get a bit confused. Which one's UNIT again?" Gwen asked.

"Intelligence, military, cute red caps. The acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens." Jack said. "We're more ad hoc, but better looking."

"And, you're from UNIT too?" Gwen asked turning to me and the Doctor.

"No." The Doctor shook his head. "We just sort of travel and um…"

"Let's just say we're freelance." I finished for him, the Doctor just nodded in agreement.

"I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths." Martha began as she put a pair of plastic gloves on. "Toxic shock, nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations, but there was a slight statistically significant concentration in South Wales."

"Come on, Martha, be honest. You came all this way to see me, and I'm sure Katherine did too." Jack said smirking.

"Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?" Martha smirked.

"So what about this pattern then, Dr Jones?" Owen asked, joining Martha around the dead body on the table.

"They were being written off as suicides or accidents." Martha told him as they moved over to look at the man's eyes. Obviously seeing what she was expecting she looked back up at Owen. "Look. Puncture mark. Hypodermic needle. You'll find his bloodstream was pumped full of ammonium hydroxide."

"Yeah, bloodstream." Owen said. "That was the thing I was going to do next."

"Have you checked his medical records?" Martha asked.

"Er, no. I just was about to."

"Let's give it a go." Martha said. "You never know, Owen, you might learn something." I tried my best not to laugh. It looked like Owen was going to have some competition while Martha was here.

_XOXO_

Jack, Owen, Martha, The Doctor and myself all stood, huddled around Tosh who was currently working, typing a load of information onto the Royal Cardiff Infirmary Records which she had managed to hack into. "One Meredith Roberts." Owen began. "Age 45."

"I know there's been a major crash on the NSH system." Tosh told us as the records started loading. "Wiped a shed load of files."

"Including all the victims I flagged up from the UNIT data." Martha added. Just then the records finished loading, only for the computer to say that all of the data of this Meredith Roberts was irretrievable. Me, Jack and the Doctor all shared a look. However, Martha obviously had seen it coming. "And now yours."

"A computer crash wouldn't delete data so cleanly. This is deliberate." Tosh told us. "Let me look into it."

_XOXO_

Me, The Doctor Jack and Martha had all gathered into Jack's office. Jack was now slouching down in his seat behind his desk. The Doctor was leaning up against a wall not too far from Jack and me and Martha were looking around at all the stuff that Jack had got in here.

"How's the family?" The Doctor asked Martha. It was obvious that he wasn't just trying to start a conversation, he was generally concerned. I had asked the Doctor several times about what the Master had done to them while I had been gone, but he just simply refused to tell me. But judging by what he had done to Martha, I doubted the way he treated her family would have been much better.

"Getting better." Martha replied, as she took her eyes of an object that she had been looking at. "They send their love to all of you."

The Doctor simply nodded. "Give them ours."

"So," Jack began, grinning as he gestured to the four of us. "End of the World Survivors Club."

"God, I am so glad to see you, Jack." I said as I moved over to sit on the chair opposite him. I really had missed him. And no matter how much he would deny it, I think the Doctor has missed him a little bit too.

"See! Don't keep making the 'I came to see the Torchwood team' excuses. You came all this way to see me." He then gestured to his jaw. "It's the jaw line, Kitty. Once seen, always yearned for."

I cocked an eyebrow at him before I started laughing. "You really haven't changed."

Jack just gave me and shrug as she smirked at me. He then turned to Martha, who had now taken a seat next to me, and pointed at her. "Anyway, what about you Miss Hifalutin. What are you now? Medical Officer?"

Martha leaned back in her chair, a smug look splayed across her face. "Oh, yes."

Jack stood up from his seat, moving over to perch himself on the desk. "So does that mean we have to call you Ma'am?" he asked, gesturing to me, the Doctor and himself.

"No." Martha scoffed. "Just follow my orders to the letter."

"Yes Ma'am." The Doctor said and gave her a mock salute.

"You know," Jack said, still looking at Martha. "You should have called me if you were looking for a job." I was wondering when this part was going to be brought up. I looked over to the Doctor, and the two of us exchanged looks while Martha continued talking.

"I wasn't." She said, shrugging. "This woman from UNIT phoned out of the blue, said I was just what they needed." She explained. "That I'd come high recommended by an impeccable source."

Instantly, both Martha and Jack's heads snapped around to look at the Doctor. He tried giving them the innocent look as if to say, 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' But the two of them just continued to stare at him, and he eventually backed down. "Oh, all right. But don't just look at me, I wasn't the one who came up with the idea." He gave a slight nod to me at the two of them quickly turned around to me.

"Yep." I raised my hands up in a mock surrender. "Guilty."

"Why, though?" Martha asked.

"I owed you one." Martha raised an eyebrow at that, and I sighed as I tried to explain. "The Master wanted me on his side, and even after I ran away I doubted that he was going to give up. He needed information. I know for a fact the Doctor would have never said anything. But you could of, you know just as much as the Doctor does, really. You could have spilled everything about me and then he might have left you alone. But you didn't. And I owe you for that." I shrugged slightly as I grinned at her. "And you are brilliant." It was then that a thought suddenly popped into my mind. "Speaking about my little set ups, did you see Tom Milligan?"

The Doctor frowned at that. "Who's Tom Milligan?"

"Oh, he's this doctor, helped me find Professor Docherty and all that back then. Long story." I said, waving it off. "So anyway, did you meet him?" Martha just nodded and I gestured for her to go on. Suddenly a grin appeared on her face and I couldn't help but smile along with her. "Aw! That's brilliant!"

"What?" The Doctor asked, the frown still on his face. "What's brilliant?"

Jack just rolled his eyes, "You are so slow."

"She's dating him." I told him. "You idiot."

"Anyway, onto more important subjects." He then turned to Martha and smirked slightly. "Do you think you can get me one of those red caps for personal use?" Both me and Martha rolled our eyes as we got up from our seats towards the exit of his office. The Doctor, who caught on not too long after us did the exact same. "Thinking Ianto might look good in it."

"You want uniforms, get your own." Martha said. "Now, are we going to get the guided tour?"

Jack suddenly stood completely still, giving her a salute. Obviously he wasn't going to let his whole medical officer thing drop anytime soon. "Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say, ma'am. Hut!"

"Leave it."

_XOXO_

Jack lead the way out of his office and through a room that contained, what I guessed what some alien plants that the team had picked up over the years. Gwen had decided to come on the tour as well, probably to ask me, Martha and the Doctor a load of questions. You couldn't really blame them, three mysterious people come into their base that Jack's so close to, but they've never heard of… Well they had heard about the Doctor but that was about it. They were bound to want to ask questions. "So that's the hothouse. Tour continues this way, ladies and gentlemen, please. No dawdling." Jack said as he lead the way out, followed by the Doctor.

Gwen suddenly stopped as she turned to me and Martha. "Um, so… You know Jack pretty well, then?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Well, we were only together for a few days really." I said to her as I looked at a piece of alien plant. "But it was rather intense."

Gwen's eye suddenly widened and I frowned slightly. "You mean… you and he…"

My eyes widened in realization of what she had meant. I almost wanted to choke. "Oh, God, no, no!" I said, shaking my head. "No. Not that sort of intense."

Gwen's eyes then turned to Martha, who had seemed to catch on a lot quicker than I had done. "No. No. No. Not at all. Nothing like that." An idea suddenly popped into her mind as she raised an eyebrow at her. "Why, are you and him…"

"No." Gwen said quickly. "No, not at all." I just nodded, trying to be as clueless as possible. At least until I got time to tell them about the whole TV show thing. Gwen was with Rhys the last episode I had seen, and going by the engagement ring on her hand, they were not planning a wedding. A lot had changed. It's funny, when I had just came into this world I had been up to date with everything, knew everything. But now everything was changing, and I had so much to find out now.

"We must be the only three people on the planet." Martha commented.

"I know." Gwen agreed. "What are we doing wrong?" I had to admit, that made me laugh a bit. But I was quickly cut off as Jack called out to us.

"Oi! You talking about me?"

"No, no. We were just discussing alien flora, weren't we?" Gwen said as the three of us made our way out of the room and toward the Doctor and Jack.

"Oh, yeah." Martha agreed.

"Yep. Just alien flora." I nodded.

The Doctor turned to me and studied my face for a moment. I frowned at him and his face suddenly broke into a smirk. "Liar. They were talking about you."

Jack just smirked back. "Raise your game, girls."

_XOXO_

After Jack took us around the cells, he led us back over to the main part of the hub where all the work desks and stuff were. I was wondering around when I saw a weird piece of equipment lying around. Walking over to it, I picked up it, holding it in my hands as I looked closely at it. "You really do have some weird kit." I said to Jack. "What's this?"

"Be careful, Kitty." Jack told me, waving his finger at me. "IT's an alien artefact."

Suddenly, Owen appeared from behind me. "Yeah. There's a lot of argument about this." He said. He held out his hand and I handed the equipment or whatever it was over to him. "But for my money, it's got to be a surgical instrument."

"Really?" I asked. It didn't look much like a surgical instrument to me. But then again it was alien. I turned to the Doctor slightly and he just shrugged, obviously never having seen something like it before.

"He's guessing." Jack said, looking at Owen, and then ad Martha. "Typical medic."

Owen just have Jack a look that probably mean 'fuck you' or 'fuck off' or something along those lines, knowing him. "Okay, right, well I call it a singularity scalpel." Owen said as Jack moved me around so that I could see it properly. "See, what it does is it concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point, without damaging anything on the way. It's brilliant."

I nodded in agreement. "It's amazing."

"Yeah, do you remember the last time you did that, Owen." Gwen said from her desk. "And…"

Owen just simply ignored her. "Yes, right, now, all we're going to do is, we're gonna vaporise this paper without even scorching the cup." He scrunched up a piece of paper he had found on a nearby desk into a neat ball and placed it inside an empty Starbucks cup.

"This is gonna end in tears." Jack whispered to me, Martha and the Doctor as he pulled me further back, and the other two moved back with us.

"Okay." Owen said signalling that he was ready. I saw Gwen move away from the desk in her chair, smirking as I looked down at the screen. Owen fiddled around with a few of the controls on thing, and suddenly the screen showed the paper inside the cup like some sort of x-ray machine. He focused as he continued mucking around with the controls, trying to get it to work, when suddenly, there was some sort of explosion nearby. Ianto screamed, making all six of us jump and me and Martha placed our hands over our ears. Eventually, all of us started laughing while Owen just cocked his head slightly. "Oh, haven't quite got the calibration right yet."

Not long after, a rather un-amused Ianto walked up to us. "Jack." He said rather seriously, making Jack instantly stop laughing. "There's been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic. Only this time, the victim survived. Woman, aged 27, she's in the hospital. Medical records wiped, just like the others."

_XOXO_

Martha pulled out a needle with a syringe full of blood from Marie's arm, placing it into a bag, which they were going to test later. "Yeah, but the doctors said they'd finished with me." The woman, Marie said to us, slightly confused as to why five people had come here to ask questions and take more blood samples.

"We're a bit different." Martha said to her.

"I know this is really tough on you Marie." I said softly. "But did you recognise the man who attacked you? You know his name or anything?"

"I already told the police." She said to me.

"We're different from them too." Jack told her.

Marie shrugged and shook her head. "No I've never seen him before."

"Did he say anything in the course of the attack?" Gwen asked.

Marie shrugged and shook her head again. "No."

"Open wide." Martha told her. Marie did so as Martha took a swab.

"Look, he just… He just came towards me with a great big blood needle didn't he?" She said. "You know, my dog bit him and then I kicked him in the nuts."

Jack chuckled. "Respect!"

_XOXO_

Me, The Doctor, Martha and Owen were in one of the labs at Torchwood, music of Owen's choice blaring through the room. Martha and Owen needed to examine the blood samples and stuff that Martha had got from Marie, and while the Doctor wasn't exactly a proper doctor, he knew a lot about this kind of thing, so he was more than capable to help them. Me on the other hand… well not so much. I mainly just watched as they chucked things around to each other, holding things for the Doctor when he asked and getting looks from Owen when I skipped tracks I didn't really like. I think one time he actually glared at me, because it had been a favourite of his, which lead to me just sticking my tongue out at him and having an evil off with him while they continued working.

Once they had done everything, we all gathered around one of the screens which was showing the results. "So you and Jack go back a long way?" Owen asked.

Martha nodded. "Yeah."

"Well… forward and back, really." I added.

"What brought you together?" he asked.

"Well, what do you think?" I smirked and he frowned at me, obviously not getting it. I nodded in the direction of the Doctor who was standing on the other side of him, and Owen finally nodded as he caught on.

"Should have known, really."

The Doctor simply ignored us as he gestured to the screen. "Tell you what I don't get with these killings. Why do they use ammonium hydroxide? It's a really weird way to kill someone."

Owen nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's gross. It's like injecting them with bleach."

It was then that an idea suddenly popped into my mind. "What if the whole aim of it isn't just to kill them, though? Bleach can destroy things right?"

Owen nodded, catching onto my idea. "It's destroying something in the victim's bloodstream."

"It's getting rid evidence."

_XOXO_

All 8 of us stood, scattered around Jack's office. Jack stood next to a screen behind his desk which was showing the details of the victim Marie. "Locally, we've got a murder victim and a survivor. Both attacked with hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped."

"And more cases across the UK." Martha added. "We think the point of the attacks is to destroy evidence of their medical condition."

"Gwen, Ianto, pursue with the criminal investigation." Jack said to the two of them, they nodded. "Martha and Owen will follow up with the medical side. Doctor, Katherine, dabble around, we'll need your expertise in anything you've got." I scoffed at that, it was more the Doctor's expertise, but I still nodded. "Tosh, any luck in retrieving those medical records?"

"Not yet. I'm gonna have to dig down into the system memories, see if I can find any remnant of deleted or temporary files." Her face broke into a slight smirk. "Completely illegally, of course."

"Do what you have to." Jack said. "We're not dealing with some freak with some needle fetish, this is a conspiracy."

_XOXO_

Me, Martha and Gwen walked down one of the corridors as we talked. Gwen had just come back from a crime scene, another victim. A student named Barry. It was just the same as all the other attacks, a puncture mark from a needle in the eye. It was exactly the same. "The attack took place in the woods, so no witnesses, no CCTV." Gwen told us.

"Same as the others?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said. "Tosh just checked Barry's medical records, already wiped."

"And the puncture mark on his eyeball was identical to the other victims." Martha said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement. She already knew the answer, but Gwen still nodded. "I mean, Jack's right. These attacks aren't random, they're clinical, professional, more like assassinations."

"Except Barry Leonard was a student." Gwen pointed out. "Who'd assassinate a student?"

I shrugged. "Student loans company."

"Yeah, I think you just cracked it." Gwen laughed. "But why delete medical records? What did all these people have in common."

"The Doctor and Owen are analysing Marie's test results now." Martha told her. "We're hoping that will give us some sort of indication."

"So we're still in the dark." Gwen said. "No idea where the killer will strike next and the attacks are getting more frequent."

"We keep looking, Gwen. We'll find something." I reassured her.

Suddenly there was beep over the intercom. _"Martha, Katherine, call from the hospital." _Ianto said. _"Marie's had some sort of seizure."_

_XOXO_

Me and Martha rushed into the room where the Doctor and Owen were doing they're analysis. "They want you guys at the hospital." I told them. "Marie's collapsed."

"Yeah? Well, our money's on this stuff." Owen said pointing to the board. "From Marie's blood, it's a new one on me."

Martha nodded as she moved closer to the board. "Yeah, me too."

"I don't think we've seen anything like it before…" I said looking over towards the Doctor.

"No." He said shaking his head.

"Have you run an isoenzyme analysis on it?" Martha asked.

The Doctor shook his head again. "Not yet." He replied, his eyes still fixed on the board, his brainy specs on.

"What are you thinking, parasitic infection?" Owen asked.

Both Martha and The Doctor nodded. "Could be."

"It's got to be down to this stuff because, otherwise, I haven't got a clue what's wrong with her." Owen said.

"Yeah." Martha said as she looked at all the readings on the board. "No infections, no deficiencies in organ function, perfect cholesterol levels, ideal blood pressure."

Owen nodded. "Yeah, exactly. She's so normal, she's abnormal."

_XOXO_

Martha tried to open one of Marie's eyes as she shone a torch into it. "Marie, Marie, can you hear me?"

Marie moved her hands up to cover her eyes. "M'yeah." She replied, almost sleepily.

"Okay." The Doctor sighed as he stuck his hands in his pockets. "You've got something in your blood that we don't recognise. And we think that it's behind your current illness, so we need to know what's been happening to you, so that we can help you."

"You're the doctors, you tell me." Was all that Marie said, I just sighed and rolled my eyes. She was trying to hide something, it was obvious.

It was then that I heard a voice coming from Owen's comms. He moved over the door at the other side of the room, so nothing was overheard by Marie. I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow to ask what was going on, but he just held up his finger to shut me up as he carried on listening. I sighed as I moved over to him. I got there just in time to hear Ianto saying that Barry Leonard, the student that had been killed, had supposedly been cured of diabetes. I frowned at that, I thought that it was impossible to cure diabetes, at least right now anyway.

"Thanks, Ianto." Owen said before flicking a switch on the comms. "Right, listen, Marie, you're gonna have to level with us." he said as he moved back over towards her bed. "This could be a matter of life and death. Have you ever had a serious medical condition?"

Marie scoffed, "Too good to be true."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Marie just sighed, frustrated. "I have HIV."

"You're perfectly clear of antibodies. That's not medically possible." Martha frowned.

Marie sighed again, her head in her hands. "That's the reset."

"Rest?" Martha asked. "What are we talking about, a drug?"

Owen just shrugged. "Right, I'm not familiar with Reset, so any idea of a chemical name?" Owen asked. Marie just started to laugh, but the laughing quickly turned into some sort of coughing fit. Martha and the Doctor tried to help her, but Owen was starting to get frustrated. "Where did you get it from, Marie?"

"I got it from the Pharm." Marie said after she finally stopped coughing.

"The farm?" The Doctor asked. "What farm?"

"No! P-H-A-R-M, the Pharm." Marie corrected him. "It's a medical research place, alright?"

"How did you get it from there?" Owen asked.

"They gave it to me." She told him. "They paid me a lot of money, they said I should keep quiet about it because it was part of the contract."

I nodded in understanding. "So, you were a clinical trial subject."

Suddenly Marie fell back onto her bed as she started to have some sort of seizure. It took both me, Martha and the Doctor to be able to keep her down, while Owen gave her some sort on injection which I guessed was something to stop this. But before Owen could even get the needle in, Marie suddenly stopped, and the heart monitor flat lined.

"She's dead."

The next second we knew, a swarm of some sort of flying bug or parasite came out of her. Everything happened in a fast blur, like we were on a DVD and the someone was pressing fast forward. Owen pressed the emergency button signalling an alarm as all four of us backed up into a corner of the room, masks on in an attempt to protect ourselves. But these parasites were gone as soon as they game, as they all suddenly floated down to the floor, dead.

_XOXO_

"So it's an alien larva incubating in human bodies." Martha said as we looked at a projecting of this larva on the screen in front of us as we sat in the conference room.

Owen nodded. "We've never seen anything like it."

The two doctors turned to look at both me and the Doctor, like they were expecting us to know what they were. I turned to the Doctor, having no idea either, only to see him shake his head. "I'm not familiar with them."

"So, it left Marie's body when she died." Owen began. "Presumably looking for another host for its next stage of development."

"Yeah, and that could have been us." I pointed out.

"Yeah. Fortunately when they didn't find one quickly, they died."

Martha leaned closer to have a better look at the projection. "I wonder what this cute little larva grows up to be."

_XOXO_

We decided to call up Jack and all the others to the conference room to give them an update. All eight of us sat or stood around the table as Martha and Owen explained what this Reset drug and this larva were, along with me and the Doctor adding our inputs along the way.

"This folks, is a molecular model on the drug we found in Marie's blood." Owen said pointing towards the screen.

"She called it Reset." Martha added.

"So what does it do?" Ianto asked.

"Right, think about when you run a virus scan through your computer, yeah. The software works its way through the files and when it finds a Trojan or a virus or whatever, it identifies it and then it deletes it." Owen explained. "That is what this stuff does to the human body. But it's not just viruses, its harmful bacteria's, toxins, even mutant cells. You name it. It's like the bodies been turned back to its factory settings."

"It's the ultimate magic bullet." Martha said. "Supersedes anything and everything in the pharmacological armoury."

"But that would be the greatest medical discovery in history." Gwen pointed out.

"Yep. Just one problem." I pressed a button that switched the screen to show a projection of the larva. "It comes along with a lethal alien parasite."

"Ah, not so good a discovery." Jack commented.

"The parasite needs a healthy body until it's incubated." The Doctor continued. "So the parasite egg incorporates this 'magic bullet', which puts everything in the system back to its factory settings."

"Reset. Neat-o." Jack sighed. "So, who runs the Pharm?"

"Well, the public image is innocent enough." Ianto began. "Private-public partnership between the government and a consortium on pharmaceutical companies. Researching and developing cutting-edge biotechnology."

"Their IT systems are way more cutting edge than they need to be." Tosh added. "Plus they've got seemingly unrestricted security clearance."

"Which means they'd have the capability to delete medical records if they wanted to." The Doctor stated.

Tosh nodded. "Exactly."

"Who runs this outfit?" Jack asked.

"The Institute Director is a Dr Aaron Copley." Gwen told him.

"Yeah, I know his work." Owen said. "He's one of the most respected research scientists in his field."

"Harvard Graduate, did research at Cambridge. Last job, Harvard Professor of Molecular Pharmacology." Ianto said. "Came to the UK to set up the Pharm."

"He's kind of handsome." Jack commented. "Do you think he'll like visitors."

_XOXO_

The Doctor and Owen had gone along with Jack to visit the Pharm. I decided to stay, try and help Martha and see if we could find anything more about this parasite, only to no avail. It turned out the visit to the Pharm was a bust up too. They hadn't got anywhere further than Professor Copley's office. According to the Doctor it was all Jack's fault for being so cocky, but according to Jack, Copley was a little too touchy.

We all stood around Tosh's computer as she tried to hack into the Pharm's computer, she was on around the seventh go, and it still wasn't working. She stopped, taking her glasses off and turning around to Jack. "I can't hack in there, Jack. And if I keep on trying, with a brute-force approach, they'll know they're under attack."

Jack sighed. "An alien life form is preying on the human bloodstream." He told her. "I need a way in there."

"Tosh." Ianto called over. "I got the results of that research." He pressed a button, sending all the information over to Tosh's computer in a flash. "On the screen now."

Tosh flicked through the pages, finally getting to the page for the facility in South Wales. "Ianto, that's brilliant. They're in the market for volunteers." She told us.

"That's understandable, given their wastage rate." Jack said.

"Then one of us goes in undercover." Gwen said.

Jack shook his head. "No. We don't know enough about the workings of that place, besides, we've already been there. You never know, they might get suspicious. Too many things could go wrong."

"Unless you were to put someone in there who wouldn't be suspected." Both the Doctor and Jack frowned at him, not catching on to what I was hinting at yet. I raised my eyebrow as I looked around. "Say someone around eighteen, old enough to be a student. A student wouldn't be suspected."

"Oh yeah, and you know someone like that who's willing to do that?" Owen asked.

I couldn't help but smirk at how oblivious Owen was, the Doctor and Jack too. "I do just happen to know someone, yeah." I turned to look at the Doctor and Jack, smirking, seeing that they had finally caught on what I was talking about.

The two of them shook their head. "No." Jack said.

"No way." The Doctor added.

"Come on. I've been in worse places." I said. "And you both know it."

I continued to stare at them as the two of them looked around, like they were debating about it before looking back at each other. They looked in the direction I was in and I saw Owen shake his head from beside me. The two of them turned to look at each other one more time before turning back to me. "Okay." The both said at the same time.

_XOXO_

Me, Martha and Ianto were in the med bay. Martha had just given me some medical things that I should check out for and now Ianto was going to show me a map of the Pharm. "Okay, these are the plans for the Pharm's buildings." He said brining out a piece of paper with a map on it. "From what Jack, Owen and the Doctor saw they reckon that the main house contains Copley's office, medical research suites and accommodation for the clinical trial subjects."

I frowned pointing to a section on the map. "What about the buildings at the rear?" I asked.

"Restricted area, fenced off, armed security." Ianto said. "Jack and the Doctor think that's where the readings of alien life forms came from."

"Cool." I grinned.

"But you don't need to go anywhere near there." Ianto told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Spoilsport."

"The first thing you need to do is get yourself accepted as a clinical trial subject." Ianto said. "Don't try too hard. Don't draw too much attention to yourself."

"Be invisible." Me and Martha exchanged a knowing look before I turned back to Ianto. "I can do that."

"Once you're in, we need you to gain access to the Pharm's IT systems, close down the system firewalls and security protocols. That way Tosh can gain access to the files and see what they're up to." Ianto said.

"Industrial espionage, it's very civilised."

"Once you've done that get out." Ianto said, not in a very serious tone. "Don't take any unnecessary risks."

I just nodded. "Understood."

"Cool."

"So," Martha began, now that all the serious stuff was out the way. "Jack asked me if I could get you a UNIT cap to wear."

"Did he?" Ianto asked, his face no turning into a slight shade of red. "Well, red is my colour."

"So am I right in thinking that you and he…" Martha made some sort of look with her face and I rolled my eyes. The answer was obvious anyway, and going by a few on the episode in season 1 of this show, she was right in thinking it.

Ianto just shrugged. "We… dabble."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Ianto nodded.

"So… what's his dabbling like?" she asked.

"Innovative." Ianto answered.

"Really?"

"Bordering on the Avant guard."

"Wow."

"Oh, yeah." Ianto suddenly coughed as he turned back to me. "Shall we get your cover story sorted."

"Absolutely."

_XOXO_

Ianto held a clear sealed up bag with a card in it, that had a picture of me on it. "Fake ID." He told me as I took it. "The Stewart could have been safe, but I changed the whole name just in case. First name Nina, surname Dobrev."

I nodded. "Okay, how do you I keep in touch with you guys?"

"Communication's very tricky." Tosh said. "The whole place could be wired. We don't want you chattering away to us and being overheard."

"But we want to monitor you at all times." Jack said.

I tried my best not to roll my eyes, knowing that 'we' meant both him and the Doctor. "Okay, so what do we do?"

Tosh held out a box to me, that had a pair on contact lenses in them. I frowned slightly, I hadn't seen these in the show before. If I had, I had forgotten. "I don't need contact lenses."

"You need these." Tosh countered.

Owen took the box out of my hand, as he helped me put them on. They felt really, really weird on my eyes. But then I had never worn contact lenses before, never needed them… or glasses. "Okay." Owen said as he put the second one in.

I frowned placing my hand up in front of me, the same image appearing on the computer screen at Tosh's desk. "Oh, I see. I'm camera."

"As Chris Isherwood once said to me when we were cruising the Kurfurstendamm." Jack said, pointing at me which earned eye rolls from both the Doctor and Owen.

Tosh turned to her computer as she typed something in. "And we can text."

As she typed the words in, they appeared right in front of me. I turned back to look at Jack, slightly gobsmacked. "Wow."

"Power comes from the body heat, so they only work when you're wearing them." Tosh told me.

"Yeah, so you have to wear them everywhere." Owen said waggling his eyebrows.

I rolled me eyes at him and slapped his arm. "Well, then I'll do something with my eyes shut." I said to him, all he did was laugh.

"In case on an emergency, we'll be able to speak directly to you." Jack said.

"The lens will communicate with your sensory-neuro receptors, bypasses the auditory system." Tosh explained.

"Can't the signals be intercepted?" Martha asked frowning.

I nodded in agreement. "Good question. Can they be intercepted?"

"Alien technology." Ianto said. "Which exploits a solution to the EPR Paradox."

"Oh, quantum entanglement of remote particles?" I asked. It seems that during my time with the Doctor, I had managed to pick up a few things, even the techno babble. "Okay, cool."

"Did we mention she was brilliant?" The Doctor asked, grinning like a maniac.

_XOXO_

"It's standard procedure to take two blood tests." The female doctor said as she pulled a syringe full of my blood out of my arm and handing it over to a nurse standing nearby. "One of them will be analysed overnight. Thank you nurse." She then walked over to a chair nearby and sat down. "So tell me about the places you've been to, Nina."

I shrugged as I tried to think of all the adventures that I had, had with the Doctor, well the ones that I was able to tell her by passing it off as a trip to another country, and not a whole different time. "Well, I had a great time in North America, France and Germany. Australia."

"What about the Third World?" She asked. "Africa, Latin America?"

A warning signal from Tosh flashed up in front of me. I looked up at the doctor and shook my head. "No. I'm sure I'll get around to it one day, though."

"Travel off the beaten track can be a bit a problem for us." She explained. "If you have some exotic tropical disease, there could be unexpected side effects and volunteers' welfare is absolute priority."

"Oh, I don't think there'll be any problem with that." I said to her. "And of course, I'm very conscious of health issues." The woman suddenly looked up at me suspiciously, and the warning signal flashed up in front of me again. "My mum's a nurse." I lied to her.

It was then that the door opened, and a man walked in. Grey hair, slightly balding, it was Professor Copley. "This is Professor Copley, Nina." The woman said. "Institute Director."

"Hi, Nina." The man said, offering his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Hello." I said, taking his hand to shake it. Words suddenly started appearing in front of me as Tosh typed them out.

**GET CLOSE TO COPLEY**

"I see you're a postgraduate student, at the moment?" Copley asked as he flicked through my files.

I nodded. "That's right."

"Studying what?" he asked.

"Creative writing." I answered. Both Copley and the other woman exchanged looks. "So I really need the money."

"Well, I'm sure you'll understand, Nina, that we have a lot of applicants." He said. "We'll let you know in due course." He began walking out of the room when more words flashed up in front of me.

**DON'T LOOSE HIM**

"Actually," I said, catching his attention again and I swung my legs off the bed. "There's something I should have told you."

"Oh, yes?" Copley frowned.

I shrugged. "It'll show up in the test results anyway." Copley frowned again gesturing for me to go, and a load of question marks from Tosh appeared in front of me. "I did have a hepatitis infection." Copley and the woman exchanged looks again and I tried not to sigh, worried that I had just blown the whole thing. "I mean, I'm fine now. But it stays in the blood, doesn't it? It's incurable strictly speaking?"

"Well, that puts a different complexion on things?" I looked up at him, hoping in my mind it was a good complexion rather than a bad one. "We could use a subject with hepatitis. Are you available to start right now?" he asked.

I nodded. "We'll sure." I said grabbing my bag from the floor, full of clothes and stuff I had quickly grabbed from the TARDIS just in case. "I've brought my overnight things."

"Then all we need is your signature on this confidentiality agreement." Copley said, handing me over a clipboard with a form on it, along with a pen. I took both as I signed the bits required, with a fake signature I made up from the top of my head. "Thank you."

"So what sort of drugs will you want me to take?" I asked him.

"We have various products at the clinical trials stage." He told me. "You'll be given a full briefing once we've finalized the programme and, of course, we won't proceed unless we have your informed consent."

_XOXO_

I laid down on the bed of my room, staring up at the ceiling, bored. I had been here for two hours, waiting for the right time we could get down to work. I sighed, looking at my watch for the second time in five minutes, only to find that it was time. Most people who worked at the Pharm would be gone by now, apart from a few security guards and doctors which I should be able to get past. I hopped of the bed, walking towards the door and slowly opening it. I walked down the narrow corridors, looking around every corner before I walked past. I was about to go down the stair well when someone from back at the hub type a message.

**BE CAREFUL**

I sighed, looking over into a glass window of the fire exit door so they could see me and nodded. I then walked down the stairs so that I was on the ground floor, walking down even more corridors until I found the door that said 'Administration' on it, which I had seen when I was being shown to my room before. I went to open the door, only to find that it was locked, I sighed as I caught sight of a key pad. I needed the code to get in. I looked over at it directly, hoping that others would catch on and get me the code somehow.

**LOOK CLOSER**

I done as they said as moved my head closer towards the key pad. Not too long afterwards, the first number appeared up in front of me.

**4**

I typed it in, awaiting the second number, when I suddenly heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. It was probably a guard. I felt myself getting nervous as I anxiously waiting for the rest of the number to turn up.

**4104**

I typed the numbers in. The next one seeming to take longer than usual. I heard more heavy footsteps as another guard came down the steps. They were getting closer down as I could see their flash lights from down the corner. However, finally the last number came up.

**41040**

I typed in the last number and quickly opened the door, rushing into the room before the guards caught me. I shut the door and stood there silently for a moment, hoping that they hadn't seen me. A few seconds later I heard heavy footsteps going in the opposite direction and I relaxed slightly as I walked over to the computer. I tried getting into the files, but it instantly asked for a password. I just continued to stare at it, waiting until Tosh or someone gave me the password, or someway to get in.

**GO TO NETWORK**

I done as they said, coming out of the log in, finding the network button and clicking on it.

**FIREWALL**

**PROXY**

**CONNECTIONS**

I done everything they said. The computer came up with a blue screen with a load of writing on it. Tosh sent me a load of stuff to type in which I did, and then suddenly the log in screen came back up again, flicking through hundreds of thousands of passwords until it finally stopped with the right one, I clicked enter, and we were in.

**I HAVE CONTROL**

I took my hands away from the mouse and the keyboard and watched as the mouse on the screen continued to move with Tosh controlling it. She brought up a screen that showed a detailed diagram with the parasite that we had seen before. Up at the top it said 'Mayfly Larval Development'. "It's the life cycle of the parasite. They call it the Mayfly."

Suddenly I heard Jack's voice, almost like he inside my head. And I knew they were doing that whole auditory receptor thing that they had told me about before. _"Kitty, now we've got control, we can download all of this and go through it here. Get out of there pronto."_

I done as he said. Slowly opening the door, I peeked out the check if anything was there. Thankfully there wasn't, and I slowly made my way back up the my room. I was only half way up the stairs when an alarm started blaring through the whole building, making me jump ten feet into the air.

"Break out in Zone A. All patrols to Zone A immediately. Breakout in Zone A. Breakout in Zone A."

Walking into some sort of large storage room, I found a window. Looking out, I saw all the guards heading off in the direction of where I guessed Zone A was. Someone typed a message telling me to get to safety. I sighed, heading out of the storage room back to my room when I heard a whistle and footsteps heading in my direction. Not wanting to get caught and being curious about this breakout anyway, I made a break for it and escaped through the window, running off in the direction of where the guards has gone.

_XOXO_

I finally found Zone A. It was that area that Ianto had told me about, it was fenced off, which meant whatever had broken out, was an alien given that both the Doctor and Jack had said that was where the readings were coming from. The only problem was, just like pretty much everywhere in this place, I needed a code to get in. And this time there was no way that Tosh or anyone back the hub was going to help me.

Suddenly I heard voices and more footsteps are a group of guards rushed towards the gate. Quickly, before they would see me, I ran and hid behind a bush that was nearby. A guard entered the code and the whole group entered, they ran off without even noticing me, so as the gate started to slowly close, I managed to quickly slip through.

I ran round the corner, looking around for any sort of alien life form I could find. But so far, I had found nothing. Suddenly, I heard a low growling come from behind me. I slowly turned around, but before I could even see where the growling was coming from, my eyes started to burn. I fell to the floor, crying out in pain and I tried to take the contact lenses out as quick as I could. It was then that I saw where the growling had come from. It was the Mayfly, but this one wasn't like the ones I had seen in the hospital. This one was ginormous. And it just happened to be heading for me.

I jumped up off of the floor in matter of seconds as I quickly backed away from the creature. I quickly moved to the side, and the Mayfly just flew past me. The group of guards rushed around the corner at the top, only for the Mayfly to fly off around another corner. One of them caught sight of me, and before I could even say anything, he shot a tranquilizer at me.

And then everything got swallowed into the darkness.

_XOXO_

I was finally pulled back into reality. I tried to sit up, only to find that I had been strapped down to some sort of table, bed thing by my wrists. I tried to wriggle out of them, even break them, but nothing was working. The door opened and Professor Copley and the other female doctor walked in and I lifted my head up to look at them.

"Will you tell this idiot to let me go?" I said to him angrily. "What is going on?"

Copley just ignored me. "Good work." He said to the security guard as he left the room.

"I'm here as a clinical volunteer. You can't treat me like this."

"You lied to us, Nina." Copley said.

"Can I just explain?" I said. "I got bored stuck in that room, so I went for a walk and first that thing attacked me and then your heavies assaulted me."

"You don't owe any loyalty to Torchwood." Copley told me. "Jack Harkness has treated you in a criminally irresponsible way."

I scoffed. "Who?" I asked. "I really don't understand."

"Don't bother. This isn't an interrogation. Torchwood is irrelevant to us, not even a nuisance." Copley said as he put a white coat on, walking towards me and taking seat on a chair. "In fact, they've done us quite a favour putting you in here. We've analysed your test results. You really are something special."

"What?" I let out a slight laugh shaking my head. "I really don't understand."

Copley sighed as he stood up, still looking down at me. "Do you what lymphocytes are, Nina?" He asked.

"They're a kind of white blood cell. Part of the immune system." I answered.

"Well, your lymphocytes are really quite extraordinary." The female doctor spoke up.

"We've never seen anything like them before, not in a human being." Copley said. "Aliens are a different matter."

"Aliens?" I scoffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Your lymphocytes and God knows what other cells have mutated." The woman told me.

"Mutated? How?" I asked, frowning.

"Under the influence of radiation." Copley explained. "Radiation that's not found in the temporally stable environments of Earth."

I watched as the woman placed a bag full of liquid with the world 'reset' written on it onto a syringe and swallowed nervously. "I don't know what that means." I said to him.

"We've dealt with aliens before, but we have never come across anything as exotic as you." Copley said walking around to the other side of the table. "A human being who's travelled in time and space, and through different universes." My eyes darkened slightly and I tried not to make eye contact as he sat down on the chair again. "Tell me about it. How is that possible? What did you see out there?"

I smirked as I turned to look at him. "This is mad." I told him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Copley gave a frustrated sigh. "Fine. If that's the way you want to play it. However it happened, it means that you have a very uniquely effective immune system, which is exactly what we need. We're developing a drug that's going to change the world, Nina. Incurable cancers, AIDS, all the scourges of the human race, wiped out. A revolution in medicine and social welfare. But it's still imperfect." I looked up and watched as the woman placed a tube into the bag. "I'd like to know what your funky lymphatic system makes of those imperfections."

My eyes widened as the woman came across to me with a needle that was connected to the tube. "I'm not taking that!" I cried as I tried to struggle away, but failing as the woman managed the push the needle in.

"But you volunteered." Copley sneered. The woman pressed down on the bag, sending liquid down into the tube. I sighed, helplessly as I watched it flow down the tube and into my veins. One thing is for sure, the Doctor and Jack better be coming.

_XOXO_

I closed my eyes tightly, struggling as I tried to supress the pain. I could feel them incubating, dozens of them. And it hurt. I was barely conscious. To be honest, I didn't even want to be. I just didn't want to feel the pain. I could only just hear Copley and the other woman talking from beside me.

"I've given her twice the critical dose." She said.

"So Mayfly larvae are incubating?" Copley said.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked him. "Her immune system's clearly reacting. There's obviously quite a fight going on inside her."

"Keep your nerve." He told her. "We're making history."

_XOXO_

_**3**__**rd**__** Person POV**_

The team had managed to get in, using the dead body Billy Davis, a hitman that the Pharm seemed to have hired. Once they were in, they all split up. Gwen, Tosh, Ianto and Martha went over to check out zone A, and the Doctor, Jack and Owen went into the building to go get Katherine.

It didn't take them long to find the research lab that they had her in. Jack kicked down the door, his gun pointed straight at Professor Copley, which right now the Doctor seemed to have no objection to. Not when they had his best friend as a hostage. "Hands above your head." Jack ordered.

The Doctor rushed over to Katherine, shortly followed by Owen. She was conscious, but barely. She was wriggling around slightly in pain, but apart from that, the Doctor wasn't sure if she was aware of anything else. But he still tried to calm her down. "Hey, hey, hey." He said to her, his voice barely above a whisper. "It's okay, I'm here. We're gonna save you." He then turned to Professor Copley, his expression hardening, his eyes darkening. "What have you done to her?" He growled. He noticed the tube coming from her arm and looked up to see a bag, the remains of the liquid inside it starting to drip down. "Tell me that's not Reset."

"She's survived the larval stage. The only subject ever to do so." Copley said. "It's fascinating. Turns out these bugs practise sibling cannibalism. Only the strongest individual is left now. God knows what happens next."

Owen stopped working on the equipment and looked up at the professor, almost helplessly. "Please, put a stop to this."

Copley shook his head. "I can't." A low growl escaped from the Doctor's lips and Jack moved his gun slightly to remind Copley that it was there, but he just rolled his eyes. "I don't know how."

The Doctor and Owen stared in horror as they watched the larva move around inside Katherine's stomach. It was still growing with every second, and neither of them were sure how much longer she had left. "Jack, this thing's killing her. And we don't know what we can do." Owen said, becoming even more helpless as time passed by.

"Owen, just stay calm." Jack told him. "There has gotta be something."

Owen sighed as he looked at the screen again, when his eyes caught sight of the singularity scalpel and an idea popped into his mind. The Doctor, who had no idea what Owen was thinking, took hold of Katherine's hand and squeezed it gently, hoping she knew that he was there as he too tried to think of something.

"_Jack, I can give you a report on Zone A." _Ianto's voice came down the comms. _"They're holding dozens of creatures captive down here. They seem to be using them as test subjects."_

"Understood, Ianto. Tell Tosh to go for total shutdown." Jack replied. "This place is a torture chamber."

"I don't need to debate medical ethics with you." Copley said.

"You abused the Mayflies." Jack told him. "You turned them into parasites."

"We didn't understand how they reproduced." Copley defended. "We tried to limit the damage."

"What, by murdering people?" The Doctor snapped.

"They were going to die anyway." Copley stated. "We're on the edge of the greatest discovery in history. It's got to be worth a few sacrifices. You must understand that, Jack. You're involved in research."

Jack shook his head. "Not like this." He looked over at Katherine for a second before turning back to Copley. "I'm closing this place down."

"In your dreams." Copley scoffed. "This is a state-of-the-art, official facility."

"Oh, I'm not gonna do it by sending a memo." Jack said. "We're in control of your IT systems. As we speak, we're crashing your databanks. Wiping your records."

"That's cyber-terrorism." Copley snapped.

"Oh, and that's just for starters." Jack continued. "We're going to trip the systems of your fire, radiation and biohazard safety networks. The power will cut, sprinklers will be activated, and a large part of this facility will be sealed and flooded with inert gasses."

"The aliens will die." Copley told him.

"They're already dying." Jack snarled. "This way they'll be put out of their misery."

"For God sake, we're on the same side!"

"No." Jack said. "Combating hostile aliens is one thing. But this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime."

Suddenly, Katherine started to shake violently, and the Doctor gulped. It was what had happened to Marie before she had died, and now it was happening to Katherine. "Jack, I need your help!" Owen called out.

Jack quickly rushed over to Katherine's side, helping the Doctor hold her down. "What the hell are you doing to her?" Jack asked.

"This is the only way we're gonna save Katherine." Owen told them. "I think I understand how it works."

"You'd better be sure." Jack warned. "Because it's never worked before."

"Owen, are you sure it's safe?" the Doctor asked.

"Okay, Doctor, Jack."

"Owen, tell me you're sure!" The Doctor pressed as the two of them backed away. "You could kill her with that thing!"

"We're losing her!" Jack cried.

Suddenly Katherine bolted up into the sitting position, her eyes open wide, but she still seemed slightly unaware. It only lasted a few seconds before her eye's fluttered shut again and flopped down onto the table as the heart monitor flat lined.

The Doctor turned to stare at Owen, wide-eyed. "What have you done?"

Before Owen could even say anything, the sound of coughing started to come from the table. The three of them looked down to see Katherine, now alive and breathing. All three of them sighed in relief. "Oh, bloody hell, it worked."

"Let's get her out of here." Jack said, ripping all the wires off of her as the Doctor and Owen lifted her off the table and helped her to walk out of the building.

_XOXO_

_**Katherine's POV**_

The coughing had quickly subsided, but I still felt really weak. Owen flung his jacket over me and carried on helping me to walk while the Doctor and Jack walked on further ahead. "I'm prescribing rest and recuperation for you, madam." Owen said to me. "And, uh, a few days in bed, preferably under my supervision."

I couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that. "You know, the Doctor and Jack would have had you if they heard you say that." I smirked.

Owen smirked. "Well, yeah." He laughed as he let me go so that I could stand by myself. "Is that a yes or a no, though?"

"Kathy!" I turned around just in time to see Martha pounce on me again as she pulled me into another tight hug. "Thank God you're okay."

"Um… yeah. Can't really breathe." Martha sighed as she pulled away and I smiled at her. "Thank you." Martha rolled her eyes as she started dragging me away towards the rest of the group, I didn't bother to struggle. I quickly turned around to Owen and smirked at him again. "I'll get back to you on that one."

Tosh walked over to Jack, a laptop in her arms, obviously waiting for Jack to give the orders. She looked up at him and Jack simply nodded. "Do it." She simply nodded as she pressed a button. Alarms suddenly started to go off all around the site as the place started to shut down. "Okay let's go." Jack said to all of us as we started to all plié into the SUV.

There was a click of a gun from behind us and we turned around to see Professor Copley, holding out a gun towards all of us. "Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?" He asked. "You ruined everything I've worked for."

"Now, let's not be stupid, okay?" Owen said calming, his hands up in surrender. "We're both rational men, scientists. I know you don't want to shoot."

He had spoken too soon. Copley pulled the trigger, shooting Owen directly in the chest. I looked down in horror, about to move over to him when Copley held the gun up again, now aiming it at me. "You're next."

Before he could even pull the trigger, Jack pulled out his revolver and shot in square in the head. Quickly, we all rushed down over to Owen, who was gasping out in pain. "Owen?" Martha said. "Can you hear me, Owen?"

"You've got to help him!" Tosh cried.

"Owen, stay with us." I said to him, my voice shaky. "Owen, Owen, look at me, look at me. Owen, look right at me. You've gotta stay with us, Owen. Come on."

Martha grabbed a syringe full of what I guessed was a pain killer and injected it into him. "Owen, speak to me!"

But there was no response. I looked down to his chest to see that his breathing had completely stopped. I turned to look at Jack who looked just as shocked as I did. Martha moved over to take his pulse and looked over at us sadly.

I shook my head. "Don't tell me…"

Martha nodded, before looking down at him. "He's dead."

**Authors Note: Ugh, I found it so had to write this chapter. Because there's a lot of people in this episode anyway, I mean the Torchwood team is made of five people, adding Martha made six. Then bringing Kat and the Doctor into the picture made it eight. I was finding it hard to get dialogue in for everyone, so I hope I did my best. I think I've even gone against my OTP for Torchwood which is ToshxOwen, because basically Owen flirted with Kat in there… idk. I don't even control what I write sometimes. **

**Oh and did you like the bit with her cover name as Nina Dobrev. I just had to. For those of you who don't know, Nina Dobrev is the person I've chosen to represent Kat. **

**I'm not sure when the next update will be, as I have exams in January. I just wanted to get this up before Christmas as a sort of present to you all. If you would leave a review, it would mean a lot. Consider it a Christmas Present.**

**Merry Christmas, and I hope you all enjoy the Christmas special of Doctor Who tomorrow.**


	4. Dead Man Walking

**Authors Note: Sorry on the two month long wait, usual reasons really. School can go die. But anyway, I managed to type this up over the half term when I found the muse to do so. And here we are. **** There's one more Torchwood episode to go after this, then I'll get onto the rest of season four with Doctor Who. **

_**Things that are written like this. **_**Are when Owen is possessed. **

_XOXO_

Owen's body was placed onto the cold, metallic table of the med bay, a sheet covering him. Martha, now currently dressed in green overalls and a set of white plastic gloves, pulled down the sheet, revealing his completely lifeless face and the top half of his body. Me, the Doctor and the team minus Jack stood around watching. I already felt sick to the stomach, knowing what was going to happen. The Doctor had hold of my hand, ready to rush me out of room if I was about to throw up or have a break down. It was weird, I had known Owen around a day maximum, but I felt like I had lost someone incredibly close. He had saved my life, and he had slightly shown me a side to him, that I've never seen on the TV before. And now he was dead.

"The time is 21:30." Martha spoke into a microphone that was hanging down from the ceiling. "This is Dr Martha Jones. Autopsy on Owen Harper. Caucasian, age 27, Torchwood Officer 565. Time of death witnessed at approximately 20:30. Autopsy begins."

She put on a mask covering her face and moved over, picking up a large sharp object, sort of like a knife. I gulped slightly, and I felt the Doctor squeeze my hand. Martha moved back over to Owen's body bringing the knife closer to him. She was about to cut into him and I closed my eyes, burying my head into the Doctor's shoulder, when suddenly Jack barged through, pushing past the plastic curtain which made all of us jump in the process.

"Stop!" He snapped, making Martha, who hasn't realized he was there jump and look up at him. "Nobody touches him until I get back, is that clear?" Everyone just stared at him and he rushed out without another word. I sighed, letting go of the Doctor's hand and I ran after him.

"Jack." I called out, but he didn't even stop. "Jack." I tried again, but he still ignored me. "Harkness!" I snapped, sounding a little harsher than I had intended, but it had managed to make Jack finally turn around, even if he did look slightly annoyed. He said nothing, he just gave me a look that sort of said 'what the hell do you want?'. I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere." He answered simply. I folded my arms, giving him a glare which made him smile weakly. "You'll find out when I get back, Kitty, I promise."

_Oh yeah, Jack? Well I have better ideas. _I thought to myself. He turned around again, about to walk off when I called out to him again. "I'm coming with you." I said, bounding up the stairs towards him.

This made Jack turn around once more, his eyes darker this time. "No." He shook his head. "She doesn't like it when I bring other people." I frowned at that. Whether he was going there was a women involved. Fine. But I had no idea how this had anything to do with Owen, and why no one was allowed to touch him. Like Jack had caught onto my thoughts, he sighed. "Look, it's complicated, but I've thought of an idea, and there's this girl that can help me. So just stay in the hub, make sure the others do too, and make sure no one touches Owen." Reluctantly I nodded, and he gave me another weak smile. "See you soon, Kitty."

And with that, he rushed out of the hub and into the cold, wet and dark streets of Cardiff.

_XOXO_

An hour. He had been gone a bloody hour. If this was his definition of soon, he was pushing it just a little bit. All the others had asked me where he was going, but I wasn't really able to tell them much. I didn't know much myself. Gwen and Tosh sat at their work stations, Martha and Ianto were sitting on the small sofa that they had, while the Doctor continued to pace up and down the hub, impatiently. I sighed, moving over towards the sofa, Martha and Ianto giving me a small smile as they moved up so I could sit next to them.

Just as I sat down, an alarm blared through the hub as the circular, cog shaped door rolled open and Jack ran through. He had a wooden box in his hands, and his white shirt underneath was covered in blood, well what I could see of it. "Jack?" I asked, but again he ignored me as he carried the box towards his office. Getting up, we all followed him, piling into his office. His back was towards us, blocking sight of the box and whatever was in it. "Jack? What have you got? What is it?"

I saw his arms move, slowly as he reached into the box, picking up whatever was inside it. He suddenly turned around, revealing what he had in his hand. I quickly took a couple of steps back, tripping up over something along the way. Thankfully, the Doctor managed to catch me. In his hand was the resurrection glove, or what Ianto liked to call the Risen Mitten. I think the title pretty much tells you what it does; it brings people back to life, but only for a short period of time… Well, normally. They had, had a problem with the other glove and an old member of the team a while back. They had to resurrect a woman called Suzie, who had Gwen's job before she died and Gwen got it. They had to bring her back, because of situations which I won't go into. But Suzie ended up draining the life out of Gwen, so she could live. They obviously managed to stop it and bring Gwen back by destroying the glove they had back then. But gloves do come in pairs, and Jack had found the second one. And all of us, except for Martha and the Doctor knew exactly what Jack was going to do.

"Oh my God." Tosh breathed.

"You can't use it. Not after Suzie." Gwen said, shaking her head, staring at the glove with wide eyes.

"I'm using the glove." Jack said simply, his voice telling us this wasn't up for discussion. "I'm bringing Owen back."

_XOXO_

The five of us followed Jack as he walked at a fast pace towards the medical bay, both me and Gwen hoping to try and persuade him out of this. We both wanted Owen back, sure. But our gut instincts were telling us this wasn't going to end well, especially after what had happened the last time. "Are you really gonna use that after what happened last time?" Gwen asked, only to be ignored. "Jack the gloves are dangerous. At best, it'll give us two minutes. At worst, it... Who knows what will happen?"

"It's not up for discussion." Jack told us.

"I thought the glove didn't work for you." I stated, making Jack turn to look at me, his expression hardened.

"Different glove, different circumstances." He told me, as Ianto set up the heart monitor, all ready. "This time it has to work for me. I'm not gonna give it any choice." I sighed, giving up as the Doctor joined me, taking hold of my hand again. "Okay, if you've got anything you need to say to Owen, now's your chance."

He placed the glove on his hand, before placing it behind Owen's head. I bit on my lip as the feeling in my gut got even stronger. I looked up at the Doctor, his facial expression was probably similar to mine. It was clear he didn't like what was going on, but he too knew that Jack wasn't going to listen to any of us right now, even him. I squeezed his hand and I looked back down at Owen and Jack, feeling him squeeze my hand back again.

"Owen, it's Jack, can you hear me?" Jack called out. Nothing. "Owen, hear my voice, get a hold of it. Let it draw you out, pull you out!" There was still nothing, not a word, and nothing on the machines.

"I'm not getting any vital signs." Ianto told Jack, but he still just wouldn't give up.

"Owen, it's me, Jack." He whispered. Suddenly a small smile broke onto his face and he nodded. "He's coming. He's coming."

The next second Owen's eyes shot open and he let out a loud scream. I jumped and I felt the Doctor jump as well from beside me. Martha placed her hands over her mouth in shock. We all knew what was going to happen, but it had seemed to take us all by surprise when it actually did, well everyone except Jack.

"What happened, where am I?" Owen asked in a panicky tone. "Oh my, God, I'm shot. He shot me!"

"Owen," Jack said in a calm voice, hoping it would calm Owen down too. "You need to listen to me, we don't have long."

"Where am I? This isn't hospital, this is the autopsy room. What am I doing here, Jack?" He suddenly came to realization and his eyes widened. I guessed he had felt the glove on the back of his head. "Oh, no! What's that? What's that?"

"The resurrection glove." Jack told him. "We lost you, but I brought you back."

Owen opened his mouth for a second but no words came out, not that I blamed him really. After a few seconds, he finally said something. "How long have I got?" he asked, looking at Ianto who was staring down at the stopwatch in his hand.

"We're at 30 seconds and counting." He answered.

"Oh, no. Jesus. Really."

"Okay, team, say your goodbyes. Gwen." He looked up at Gwen who was trying to find words to say, but finding none. I saw Owen roll his eyes slightly in the corner of my eye.

"Gwen, no offence, but I've only got two minutes to live!"

"Tosh." Jack said, signalling it was her turn.

"I'm gonna miss you." she said rushing up to him. She then took hold his hand, and squeezed it. "Goodbye, Owen." And with that she rushed back to where she had been standing on the steps.

"Owen, I need the code of the alien morgue." Jack told him. "You're the only one who knows it."

"You brought me back for that?" Owen snapped. "For that!"

"I'm sorry."

Owen sighed. "It's 231165. Okay?"

"I'm sorry." Jack said to him, kneeling down on the floor so he was roughly at his level. "I had to… to help you prepare. I know what death is, I want to be ready." Owen was speaking so quietly now that I could barely hear what he was saying, but I could tell he was scared, not that anyone could blame him.

"Two minutes." Ianto announced. That was it. Owen could be gone any second now.

"Jack, Jack…" Owen said, his voice shaky.

"Be brave!" Jack said, taking hold of his hand. "Owen! Owen!"

There was no response from him. His eyes fluttered shut as the heart monitor flat lined, signalling that he was gone for good. I tried swallowing down a lump that had formed in my throat, trying not to cry, and I could see Gwen trying to do the same as the Doctor pulled me into a hug and I buried my head in his chest. Tosh didn't seem to bother as her eyes welled up with tears, Jack exactly the same, still not letting go of Owen's hand.

"I'm really gonna need that hand back." A voice suddenly said. I frowned, recognizing the voice to be Owen's. I lifted my head up from the Doctor's chest, pulling out of the hug to see Owen, eyes open, completely awake. But there was no life signs on the machine.

"Owen?" Jack questioned.

"Two minutes, twenty." Ianto told him.

Jack jumped up, staring at the glove that was still on his hands, but way away from Owen. "Look, I'm not using the glove!"

"But I'm still here." Owen said.

"Oh, and here we go again." I sighed. "Great."

Jack let out a sigh in frustration as he pulled the glove off, chucking it. It landed near me, Gwen and the Doctor and the three of us quickly took a couple of steps back away from it. Owen sat up, turning to look at me for a short second before he turned back to Jack. "Maybe I cheated it somehow. Maybe I wasn't meant to die so I'm being kept alive." He was about to get up when he suddenly froze and looked around the room. "Ah, somebody pass me my pants, please. Woah!" he looked down at the hole that was still in his chest from where Professor Copley had shot him.

"It's okay." Jack told him. "I hate to say it, but you'll get used to it."

_XOXO_

Pretty much dressed, except for his shirt was still unbuttoned, Owen ran up the stairs out of the autopsy room, stethoscope in hand. He took it away from his chest, eyes widened slightly. "No heartbeat, there's no pulse."

Martha sighed, walking up the steps. "Owen, you can't lead the investigation."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because you're the subject of it." She answered.

"And you're dead." The Doctor added.

Owen's eyes switched from Martha to the Doctor and back again. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, we're sure!"

"Well, I'm okay." Owen told them, moving over to a screen near Gwen and pointing to it. "Look, there's electrical activity in my brain."

"That shouldn't be possible." The Doctor said, staring at it at the screen, shaking his head as he did so.

"Well, I'm still here." Owen pointed out. "And actually, I feel amazing."

"So where is the power coming from?" Martha asked.

"Suzie survived because she was draining energy from me." Gwen explained to her, the Doctor, the only ones who were sort of in the dark at the moment.

I nodded, looking at Owen as the idea popped into my head. "Owen could be doing the same to Jack."

The next second all the eyes in the room turned to look at Jack. His eyes widened as he held up his hands in some sort of surrender. "I feel fine."

_XOXO_

Jack sighed as we all stood in his office, his arms spread out as Toshiko scanned him with some sort of device. Everyone had become paranoid ever since me and Gwen put the idea of Owen draining Jack into their heads, me and Gwen included, the only way to stop it was to actually find out. Finishing the scan, Tosh looked back up to all of us.

"The Philemon Filter detects biochemical energy." She explained. "It's how we knew Suzie was draining Gwen."

"And?" I asked, wanting the answer more than anything else. "What does it say?"

She looked down the device again before shaking her head. "Nothing. There's no connection between them. It's not Jack."

"I told you, I feel fine." Jack said, moving over to his desk.

"So, what's keeping me ticking?" Owen asked. "I mean, the energy in my brain must be coming from somewhere."

Ianto walked past, the resurrection glove in his hands. As he came past me, I jumped back slightly, moving closer to the Doctor at the same time. The first glove had given me the creeps when I had seen it on TV back home, to see one in real life just terrified me even more, the fact it's brought Owen back for what I guess could be for good wasn't helping. And even then, the glove seemed different, and not just by looks, it was giving out a bad vibe to me, even worse than the one before did.

The Doctor had noticed how uneasy I was feeling, and placed his arm around my shoulder, making me feel much better instantly. Safer. But I could feel that he was tense. And I didn't even need to guess that I knew it was because of the glove. He didn't like it when people controlled life and death, no one should have that power. And the fact that Jack did have that power and never told him… It was obvious he didn't like it.

"This glove is different to the other one." Ianto pointed out. "Maybe different gloves do different things."

Martha scoffed. "How many are there?" She asked.

"Two." Ianto told her. "Well, they do tend to come in pairs. We fished the first one out of the harbour last year." _Yes Ianto, because whoever dumped it in here probably wanted rid of it._

"But where does it come from originally?" Martha asked.

"Good question." Jack told her. "No idea." He then turned to the Doctor, a hopeful look in eyes that he may know. "Doctor?"

"Never seen anything like it before." He confessed, shaking his head. His voice then turned into a low mumble as he said. "Not exactly glad I have seen it."

Jack let out a sigh before he turned to Toshiko. "Tosh, do an analysis of the glove, see if you can find out." His gaze then turned towards Owen. "Owen, I don't need to tell you that you're under quarantine."

"You don't, and yet you still do."

_XOXO_

I sighed looking down at Owen who was sitting on the table in the autopsy room, staring at his hand as he flexed it. Martha and the Doctor had come up with some sort of energy tracker thing, and suggested that I should be the one to go give him the wrist strap. I knew it was an attempt to get me to talk to him, I hadn't said a word to him since he had come back from the dead. But then, what do you say to someone who's just come back from being dead? I'd have no idea what to say. And if I'm honest I was still slightly creeped out by the fact that he was alive, and the fact he was alive because of the glove.

Quickly, I shook the thoughts away. He was still Owen Harper. Still the sarcastic cocky little shit that I knew. Still the guy that saved my life just hours ago. Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked down the stairs to the autopsy room. Owen must have heard me as his head shot up to look at me, studying my face before smirking.

"You're kind of cute when you frown."

I just ignored the comment as I walked towards him. "The Doctor said that the energy from the glove is spreading through your body, changing its composition." I explained, revising the exact words that the Doctor had said to me. I unbuckled the wrist strap as I wrapped it around the wrist Owen held out to me. "If you keep this on, we'll be able to monitor changes when they happen."

"You've stopped flirting with me." Owen pointed out. I sighed under my breath, still saying nothing as I fastened the strap and stepped away; grabbing the other device the Doctor had given me to activate it. "I mean, it's all right. I wouldn't flirt with me in my condition either but, um…" he paused for a second as I held the device up to the wrist strap, pressing a button, causing the strap to light up with a blue colour. "Is it still necrophilia if I'm conscious?"

"What was it like?" I finally asked him. A question that had been nagging me ever since I had come down here. "To die?" I had heard on episodes of Torchwood that it was just darkness, there was nothing there. But this was a parallel universe; some things could still be different to the show.

Owen paused at that and froze, his back facing me. "I don't think I should say." He said, picking up an x-ray from nearby.

"And why's that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure the living should know." He paused for a moment, his voice going down to barely a whisper. "The living… It might change the way you live your life." He turned away again move over towards a light nearby, holding the x-ray up towards it, looking at it.

I sighed, walking around the table towards him, grabbing the x-ray out of his hand and turning him around. "You tell me right now, Owen. No excuses. You tell me."

He sighed, finally looking down at me again, his eyes looking directly into mine. "It's hard to describe, there aren't quite the words for it, you know. It's like, uh…"

"What Owen?" I asked grabbing hold of his hands.

"There was a light." He told me. "A tiny speck of light. And I was rushing towards it, like down a corridor, then it glowed brighter and brighter, then suddenly there were these gates," I frowned slightly, the story starting to sound slightly to familiar to ones you hear in stories. It was then that Owen's face turned from a serious one to a big, sarcastic smile, his voice becoming high pitched and girly. "These big pearly gates and there was this old geezer and he said, 'You've been a very naughty boy.'"

I rolled my eyes at him and whacked him on the back of the head, wiping the smirk that had been on Owen's face away just as quick as it had come.

"You slapped me." He whined, almost like the Doctor did whenever I slapped him.

"Yes, I did, because you're an idiot." I said to him as I walked away. "And I slap everyone who's an idiot."

"What so you slap the Doctor then, do you?" He said, sarcastically.

I nodded turning around to look at him. "I do as a matter of fact."

That caused Owen to laugh for a few seconds. That was until his face became all serious again and he turned to look at me in the eye. "There was nothing." He confessed. "Well, not that I can remember. Suzie said it was different."

I frowned, looking up at him, slightly memories of her coming back. "Yeah, didn't she say there was something there?"

Owen nodded. "Something beyond life, something in the darkness, something moving…"

The next second I knew, he was backing away, almost falling over. I ran over to him managing to catch him before he hit his head or something, but that didn't stop much. He was still flailing about, trying to wriggle out of my grasp, screaming out my name, almost like he was scared.

"Oh my God, Doctor!" I cried out, hoping the Doctor or at least someone would hear. "Jack! Help! I need help now!"

"I don't wanna die!" Owen cried.

I heard the sound of rushed footsteps and the next second the Doctor and Jack came rushing towards me, both of them taking hold of Owen as well as we tried to pull him up away from the table he was clinging onto. "What's happened?" the Doctor asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know, he just collapsed." I told them before turning my attention back to Owen. "Owen, can you hear me?" The next second his scrunched up eyes suddenly flew open and he stared at me, in horror. "Shh, it's all right, calm down."

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"I was in the darkness." Owen said through ragged breaths. "There was something, something there…"

"What?"

"What did you see?" I asked, trying to keep my tone as calm as possible in an attempt to calm Owen down too.

"I don't know." Owen replied. "It was… waiting for me."

He soon started sobbing, and I pulled him away from the Doctor's and Jack's grasp, pulling him into a tight hug, rubbing his back in circular motion to try and comfort him as he continued to cry.

But deep down, I was terrified myself. The glove had been given off a bad vibe, Owen was changing, and now there was something, on what I guessed was the other side waiting for him. And whatever it was, it didn't sound good.

_XOXO_

"Owen's body is going through some sort of transformation." The Doctor explained as we all sat back in the conference room. "His cells are changing instead of decaying like they're meant to."

"Changing into what?" Jack asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's an energy that neither of us can identify." Martha told us. "But it's growing all the time." Her eyes moved over to the screen and my eyes followed to see outline of Owen's body along with a percentage showed on it. "He's about 40% something else."

Owen shrugged. "I don't feel any different." His voice was still shaky so I gave him a reassuring smile, even though I didn't exactly feel good about it myself.

Jack let out a sigh. "We need to find out where this energy's coming from."

"Presumably it's from the same place as the glove." Tosh said. "And judging by its atomic make-up, it's not anywhere local."

"Owen said he went somewhere when he collapsed. Could the energy and the glove come from the same dark place?" Gwen suggested.

"What are we talking about?" Jack asked. "A different dimension?"

"Parallel universe?" The Doctor added. It was a possibility, if I was able to fall out of my universe and into this universe, then something smaller than a glove could probably do the same.

"Well, it's certainly not from mine." I mumbled, only enough so that the two people next to me could hear, which was The Doctor and Jack. The other guys didn't know yet, although I'm sure they were wondering why I was coming out with things I couldn't possibly know. But right now we had other problems at hand, so it's not the best idea to bring it up right now.

"Yes, guys, I'm still here." Owen pointed out, looking mainly at the Doctor and Jack.

"Sorry." They both said.

"Okay, you said there was something in the darkness waiting for you." Jack stated.

Owen gave a small shrug. "I felt it, I didn't see it."

"Where do you think you went?" The Doctor asked.

Owen shook his head. "I don't know."

_XOXO_

I let out a sigh at I perched myself onto Jack's desk, the Doctor slumping down in a chair next to me, as Jack sat down at his desk. The two of them started looking at bits of paper about things I had no clue about, the Doctor also looking at some alien artefacts once in a while. I, however just stared out of the window, not being able to get the glove out of my mind. An image of it shot up in my head, and I shivered, moving my gaze down to the floor.

"The glove." Jack said, pulling me out of my own little world that I was in. I turned my head around to see both him and the Doctor staring at me intently. "It really creeps you out, doesn't it?" I simply nodded. "Why?"

"I don't know. Ever since I saw it on the show, your show I mean, and I saw what it could do, it freaked me out then. But it's worse now, like seeing it's made the feeling worse." My eyes flickered down to the floor again. "And that one, it's different, I mean the feeling I get from it is worse than the one before, and now there's the thing with Owen…"

"It's not going to hurt you." The Doctor reassured me. "I won't allow that to happen."

"It's not just me that I'm worried about."

"It won't hurt him either." He added. "Or anyone." He grabbed my hand and squeezed it again for what was probably the hundredth time tonight, when Martha came in, holding the device that was tracking Owen's transformation which was now currently beeping rapidly in her hands.

"Have you seen Owen?" she asked looking at the three of us.

"He was with Toshiko." Jack told her as he glanced down at the beeping device with a slightly perplexed look.

"The energy in him just went off the scale." _Oh crap._

The four of rushed out of Jack's office, looking all around the hub. "Owen." Jack called out, making everyone around us turn around the look. "Owen."

"He said he needed to loo." Tosh told us.

"Owen's digestive systems shut down." Martha reminded her. "He can't eat or drink, so he certainly doesn't need to pee."

"He's not answering." Jack said as Ianto grabbed his coat and he put it on. Knowing he was getting set off to go out somewhere to look for him, I grabbed my own coat from nearby and started putting it on.

"Well he's not the hub." Gwen informed us as she stared at a screen.

"You mean he's out there?"

"It's Owen." Jack said. "It's not like he's dangerous."

"Are you sure about that?" Martha asked.

"Meaning?"

"You had the power to bring people back to life." Martha said. "And you never told UNIT."

"Or me." The Doctor added. "Why?"

Jack sighed, turning around as he reached the door to the hub. "It never came up in conversation." He shrugged. "And as for UNIT, they would have wanted to use it."

"I'm on your side, Jack. But Owen's just had a surge of energy that we can't begin to understand. The cells in his body are being transformed into something else. He's about 50% human, and that 50% is dead." Martha said. "We need to stop thinking about him as Owen."

"We'll find him." I told them as I quickly followed Jack out of the cog like door. Once it closed, Jack turned to me like he had just realized I was there, giving me a look which if I'm right meant 'are you out of your freaking mind?'.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jack asked before he continued without getting an answer. "Kitty, it might not be safe."

"It's Owen." I said, repeating the words he used barely minutes ago. "It's not like he's dangerous."

Jack chuckled. "Using my own words against me, huh?" I just smirked as the next door opened and we both walked through it. "Fine, but it's the Doctor rules okay? Stay by my side at all times, don't even think about—"

"Wandering off?" I asked. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Good." He said as we neared the SUV. "Now come on."

_XOXO_

Finding Owen hadn't been as hard as I previously thought. Using some software that was in the SUV, we managed to use the wrist strap that Owen still had on as a tracker to find out where he was. And like Jack had guessed as we got it all set up, he was in one of the many clubs in Cardiff which was slightly predictable. Although if we hadn't had the tracker it would have taken a bit longer to find him, given the number of clubs there are. We both managed to get in, just as Owen was about to leave. Jack quickly moved through the crowed and stepped right in front of Owen, blocking his path.

"How did you find me?" Owen asked. Jack just lifted his arm up, revealing the wrist strap, knowing that, that would be enough of an answer. However, Owen wasn't exactly up for taking any of it right now and immediately pushed him. "Get off me Jack. Do you know what you've done?" He pushed him again, making him hit a wall.

"Hey, hey, hey." I said, filling in the space between the two of them as I turned to Owen. "Just calm down, okay?"

"It's okay, Kitty." Jack told me. "Just leave it."

"You don't care about me." Owen continued, talking to Jack. "You brought me back for an alarm code!"

He went to walk away, but Jack quickly grabbed him by his jacket, pulling him back. "That is not why I brought you back." He almost growled.

Owen quickly shook him off again. "Have you got any idea what it means to know that your life it over? That that was it! That is Owen Harper's contribution to the world! You idiot!"

Managing to dodge me, Owen lunged at Jack. But he also managed to dodge out of the way of Owen's fist, causing Owen to fall into the table, which Jack immediately took as an opportunity to grab him. Owen didn't take it to kindly though as he started thrashing about, trying to get out Jack's grasp. I sighed, rushing over to try and pull them apart, knowing it wasn't helping. I managed to get to them, and begin to try and pull Jack off, but before I could succeed, a strong muscly security guard grabbed hold of me, another two grabbing hold of Jack and Owen and they pulled us to the exit, chucking us out.

But Owen didn't stop there, as soon as he was out of the security guards grasp, he lunged at Jack again, who immediately caught him and tried to stop him. This all caught the attention of a police officer, who ran over, breaking them up and taking hold of his arm. "Let's calm down, shall we?"

"Look, mate, I'm Torchwood." Owen said to the officer before turning back to Jack.

"Of course you are." The officer replied, as the noise of a siren filled the air, getting closer and closer. "And I'm MI5." Owen, clearly not having any of this lashed out, getting his arm out of the officers grasp. But not before the officer has him up against the wall and began placing a pair of handcuffs on him. Another officer, getting out of the car, walked up and also placed a pair of Jack.

"I'm Owen Harper." Owen said. "I work for Torchwood on special ops."

"Special ops? What's he on about?" Jack said, in a fake London accent which I just rolled my eyes at as he was moved towards the car. "Special needs more like it."

I sighed as I watched Owen also be moved over towards the car until I felt someone grab hold of my hands, placing them together. I looked up at saw the police officer; bring another pair of handcuffs out as he placed them around my wrists. "You too, sweetheart." He said as he started moving me towards the car as well.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

_XOXO_

I sighed and turned to Jack who was sitting in the cell next to me and rolled my eyes as Owen, yet again, ran up to the door and started banging on it. He had been doing this for what seemed like forever, not even getting the hint that no one was probably listening to him. And it was starting to give me and Jack a headache. "You call that number!" He yelled out. "You speak to Police Constable Gwen Copper! I want to make complaint!" And then once again he kicked the door.

"Oh my God, enough already!" I snapped at him, making him freeze for a second before turning back to me, obviously slightly shocked at my sudden outburst. "Thank you. Jesus, who knew dead people could be so loud." Owen just rolled his eyes at me as he kicked the brick bench opposite us.

"Stop it." Jack warned, and Owen turned to look at him. "You're dead. You break your ankle, what are the chances it'll knit back together? You want to add a wheelchair to your prob—" He cut his sentence of short as a strange noise came from Owen's stomach, and the two of us stared at him slightly confused. "Problems?"

_XOXO_

_Okay, as if this night couldn't get any stranger. _I thought to myself as I watched the slightly weird scene in front of me. Owen had taken to standing upside down on his head, against the wall in the cell, for the reason I wasn't quite sure of yet.

"I forgot, my digestive systems shut down." Owen told us. "The alcohol I drank is just going to sit in my stomach, it won't go anywhere."

"Couldn't you just you know.." I raised a couple of fingers up to be mouth. "Stick your fingers down your throat?"

"I'm dead." Owen stated. "It's just another one of those things, the gag reflex, lost in the process." He then slowly started to move his neck around and I raised an eyebrow slightly. "Hang on, hang on, if I can just line up my oesophagus, I…" The next second I knew, there was a gurgling noise and the alcohol suddenly came spilling out of Owen's mouth, all over the floor causing my and Jack to quickly move out feet up onto the bench.

"Oh! Oh, that is the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen." Jack exclaimed, staring down at the floor in disgust as the alcohol still kept coming up. "And I know disgusting."

Sure that he had got rid of all the alcohol from his stomach, Owen flipped back up onto his feet, which caused a sudden farting noise and mine and Jack's eyes quickly turned to look at Owen, horrified. "Sorry, guys, I forgot that does on for a while after death."

My eyes widened as yet another fart escaped as I turned to the door. "Oh my God. Please, someone. Let me out."

"But eventually that will stop, too." Owen carried on, ignoring my comment. "I'll fart my last fart. God, I'm going to miss farting, and sex."

"Sex more than farting, I hope." Jack commented.

"You take these things for granted. It's only when they're slipping away you realise how amazing they are." Suddenly he started moving around the room, like some sort of mad man, feeling the concrete. "This could be the last time I see these flecks or, you know, feel these bricks underneath my hands."

"'Only in suffering do we recognise beauty.'" Jack quoted.

Owen turned to him, his eyes winded slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Who said that?"

"Proust." He answered simply.

Both me and Owen looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You've read Proust?" he asked.

"Yeah." Jack nodded. There was a long pause before he spoke up again. "Well, no. We dated for a while… He was really immature."

"Typical." I rolled my eyes and Jack smirked, nudging me slightly.

"You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously when you say those things." Owen said, letting out a small laugh as he did so.

Jack shrugged. "When you've lived as long as I have, you don't make anymore up."

"You have forever. I could have seconds." Owen mumbled and I sighed slightly. "Hardly seems fair."

"It isn't." Jack told him, letting off another small shrug. "But then forever's overrated."

Owen shook his head. "Not from where I'm sitting."

Jack said nothing as he stood up from the bench, moving over to the one opposite where Owen was sitting. "If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks on the concrete, or bother to touch the bricks. You send your friends into danger knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed," I saw him glance at me for a moment, knowing that he still felt guilty that he had agreed to send me into the Pharm earlier today. Not only because I could have died, but because Owen did in fact die as well. "While you walk away unscathed."

"Why did you bring me back?" Owen asked. "Guilt?"

Jack shook his head. "No. That's not why."

"Then why did you? Really."

Jack sighed, placing his hand on Owen's shoulder. "Because I wasn't ready to give up on you." He told him. "I guess I was hoping for a miracle. And I still am." He paused for a moment before he smirked and pushed Owen away playfully. "Let's go home."

He heaved himself up of the bench and walked towards the door. I saw Owen's gaze move over to me, like he was inspecting me, waiting for me to say something. I never did though, I just smiled at him and he smiled back, and then the sound of Jack banging on the metal door brought me back into reality.

"Torchwood. Authorisation, Harkness, Jack. 474317."

_XOXO_

The three of us walked along the streets of Cardiff at a fast pace, in silence, neither of us had really said anything since he had left the station. Which had been around five to ten minutes ago. We turned a corner, into a small alleyway where the SUV was parked only to find that a strange humanoid creature was waiting for us. A Weevil, to be precise. He lot out a low growl, only for even more of them to come along behind us, growling just like he was.

"There's too many of them." Jack said. "They're after me; I stole the glove from them. Go." He told the two of us, but we still stayed put. "Go!" He said this time for firmer. "And keep Kitty safe."

I felt Owen grab my hand and he took off, me running along with him as he ran down another alleyway down the side of a building, my hand never leaving his. I don't know why, I just felt safer that way. I heard footsteps behind me, and turned my head for a second to see Jack was now just behind us. We were nearing the end of the alleyway when another bunch of Weevils appeared at the end, causing Owen to grind to a halt and me to smack into him.

"Woah." I said staring at them. "How many are there?"

"They must be really pissed off with you." Owen commented. Jack said nothing, grabbing Owen's free hand and dragging him around a corner.

We kept on running until we were lead to a car park and we ran up the first couple sets of stairs, hoping that we would have lost them by now. But our hopes were soon stamped on, when a Weevil suddenly appeared around the corner and we immediately turned around back to the door again, running up even more stairs.

Jack was well ahead of us, I only saw the bottom of his coat swish as he turned a corner a couple of stairs up from us. Me and Owen carried on climbing up them, only stopped when we couldn't see Jack anywhere in sight at all.

"Owen." Jack called out. "Kitty." We turned in the direction to see that he had gone through a door that lead to another level of the car park. Quickly, we ran through it too, joining him. The level was empty, with no Weevils in sight. Or at least that's what it looked like so far. Jack turned to the two of us. "Stay here." And with that he ran off, to check whether there was any lurking around.

Owen still had a hold of my hand, and I felt his grip on it tighten as he looked around. The silence should has been reassuring, after all, if there was any Weevils Jack would be shouting out or we would hear them growling. But it still felt eerily strange to me.

"Owen! Kitty!" Jack suddenly called out.

Next second there were heavy footsteps and Jack grabbed the two of us dragging us along, a bunch of Weevils hot on our tail. I let out a sigh as we began running across the levels again. I heard some growling from below us, and knew that there we even more on the level below as well. We ran all the way up to the top level, which was a pretty bad mistake given we were now surrounded. Jack quickly looked over the edge, probably seeing if we would survive the jump, which was obviously a no.

"Owen, Kitty, get behind me." Jack ordered, bring out his revolver.

"Yeah, right." Owen finally let go of my hand, pushing me behind the both of them, but he never got behind Jack as well. He just stood there, almost like he wanted to die now. "Come on."

Weevils rushed out from all entrances, gathering together like some sort of swarm, hissing and growling. I closed my eyes for a second, fearing what was going to happen next. But then the growling stopped and I frowned as I opened my eyes. The Weevils and gone to the ground, burying their heads like they were cowering away from something, but me, Jack and Owen were the only others here.

"Owen, what the hell is going on?"

I heard a distorted voice, and my head turned from Jack to look in the direction that the voice had come from, only to see Owen. My eyes widened slightly when I saw him, his eyes were completely black now, like he had some sort of demon possessing him. It certainly wasn't him talking though, that's for sure.

"_**Melkurian abatha duroc minus mil kabal!**_"

_XOXO_

Owen had quickly come out of it, but the Weevils still seemed scared of him, so it made it easy for us to leave without getting eaten alive. The drive back to the hub was silent, Jack drove and I sat in the passenger seat while Owen sat in the back, both me and Jack looking in the rear view mirror every once in a while to see if he had changed again. He was calm, a lot calmer than he had been before at least, but I could still tell in his eyes that he was scared.

When he got into the hub, everyone else was gathered around Tosh's computer. They had found something, and my bets were it was something to do with Owen.

"_**I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.**_" Came from the computer, and my stomach twisted. I saw the Doctor's eyes widen slightly, still not realizing that we were back.

"Okay." He said barely above a whisper. "That doesn't sound good."

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Gwen added.

"Oh, yeah?" Jack called out, making all five of them turn around to look at us.

"You don't even know the half of it."

_XOXO_

Owen stood in front of one of the Weevils cells, with me, the Doctor, Jack and Martha watching. "So, you got chased by one of those?" the Doctor asked.

I nodded. "More than one, actually."

"Knew I should have tried to stop you from going out there." He mumbled, obviously hoping I wouldn't hear, but unfortunately for him I did.

"Oh, shut up." I nudged him in the arm. "I survived didn't I?"

"Only just."

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him as I turned my attention back to Owen. He was still standing there, the Weevil slowly and reluctantly moving closer towards him. Owen placed one of his fingers through the hole in the door and the Weevil quickly backed away, causing me to frown just as I had done before.

"So I'm King of the Weevils, maybe even Weevil messiah." Owen said. "But whichever way you look at it, it ain't good."

"No, it isn't." Gwen said, walking through the door. "And I think it's happened before." She walked over to Jack, handing him pictures of what looked like ancient sketches, including a Weevil and the glove.

"Where did you find this?" Jack asked.

"I found it in an article about Black Death, and what you're looking at there is some of the first images of the Grim Reaper." Gwen told him. "'I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.' In legend, the person who said those words was Death himself."

"But there's no such thing." Martha said looking up from the pictures. I said nothing as I continued looking at Owen and the Weevil.

"Yeah, I'm dead. I'm not Death." Owen corrected. "There is a difference."

"Well," The Doctor sighed. "He might not know that."

_XOXO_

"Right, that wood carving dates back to the 15th century, to a small parish called St James." Gwen said, placing pictures down on around the table as we call gathered in the conference room once more. "When they heard about the plague they built a wall around the town. Unfortunately that didn't prevent a little girl from dying. So the legend goes, the priest performs a miracle, brings her back to life, but she doesn't come back alone. She brought Death back with her, and he walked amongst them."

"Are we seriously going to act on something she's googled?" Tosh asked, turning to look at Jack.

Jack simply ignored her. "What was the name of the priest's church?" Jack asked.

Gwen moved around the table back to her pile of research, which I had to admit was rather impressive. She skimmed through it all before placing her finger on a certain part, looking up at Jack. "Yep, St Mary's."

"That's where I found the glove." Jack said.

"Which makes the parish of St James the town that 500 years later would turn into a city called Cardiff." The Doctor added, looking at Gwen with a massive grin on his face. "Oh, you are good."

"What happened to the town when Death walked amongst them?" Owen asked.

"People died." Gwen answered honestly. "Twelve people. Death needed thirteen souls before it had a permanent hold on the Earth."

I raised my eyebrows. "So how did they stop it at twelve?" I asked.

Gwen shrugged, looking down at her research again. "It just says faith."

"Owen is changing." Martha spoke up. "Who knows what this energy is? What if it's making him a host, a gateway?" she suggested.

"I've been thinking there's something in the darkness waiting for me to finally pass over but I've got it wrong, okay?" Owen said. "It's the other way around. It's trying to get here through me." Suddenly the energy monitoring device started beeping and Owen's head snapped around to Martha. "What's this reading now?"

"80%" she told him.

"What happens when it completes?" Owen asked. "We fight monsters, what happens when we turned out to be the monsters, when I do?"

"Even if we have to fight you, you're already dead." Jack pointed out.

"And what do we do with the dead?" Owen asked, even though he of all people would already know the answer. "Come on, what do we do?" he asked again, this time more loudly and he didn't even wait for an answer. "You embalm them. If we inject a formaldehyde solution into my veins, it'll petrify my neural pathways and freeze dry my brain." My head shot up to look at him, my eyes wide again. "It's the only way to be sure."

_XOXO_

I let out a sigh and sat myself down on the floor near the med bay, leaned up against the wall and watched as Jack and Martha, the only ones really willing to actually go through with this, get the formaldehyde solution really for the injection. I heard footsteps and felt someone sit down next to me, I looked up to see the Doctor's dark, chocolate brown eyes staring down at me. I sighed, turning away again to continue watching Jack and Martha.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?" I heard the Doctor ask from beside me.

"Why would I?" I asked, not turning to look at him again. "We don't really know each other."

"Maybe not." The Doctor agreed. "But you still cared about him."

I simply shrugged. "I care about everyone."

"Kat…"

"Can you just shut up, please?" I snapped, and the Doctor suddenly fell silent. I finally looked around, seeing that he had one of those little 'sorry' faces on, knowing that he had probably stepped on shaky grounds. I all of a sudden felt extremely guilty; after all it wasn't his fault. I let out a sigh, tucking my hair behind my ear. "Sorry." The Doctor said nothing, he just hugged me and I let out a shaky breath. The sound of the energy monitor beeping made both of our heads instantly turn around to Martha who was now looking at it.

"Owen's at 95%." She told us.

"Then let's not waste any more time." Owen's voice made me jump and I looked around to see him coming up the last step. I saw his eyes flicker over to me for a second and I quickly diverted mine to the floor. "No goodbyes."

He moved over to the table bed thing and I slowly followed, along with the Doctor going to stand with Jack and Martha. He sat down on one of the table chair type things and Jack and Martha strapped him to it.

"Are you ready for the first injection?" Jack asked. Owen gave him a look before he finally nodded. He looked over at Martha who turned around to the tray to get the needle, but she immediately jumped away when the glove that was also there started moving. I started to get the feeling in the pit of my stomach again, and I edged slightly closer to the Doctor. "Someone really doesn't like needles." We all watched it carefully, when suddenly it lunged at Martha, she caught it, but she was sent to the floor and she struggled to try and stop it from attacking her. "Lockdown!"

The Doctor and Jack rushed over to her, trying to pull the glove away from her while Martha kept screaming. Owen was trying to struggle out of the chair, while me and the rest of the team stood still like he were frozen on the spot, except for Ianto who suddenly rushed off somewhere, probably to get a gun or something to attack it. Eventually the two of them managed to get it away from her, chucking it across the other side of the room, and Martha scuttled over to me and I bent down to comfort her.

That hadn't stopped the glove though, as once it got its sense of direction back, it's started scuttling towards us. The two of us screamed, and quickly grabbed hold of the railing, climbing on it as Gwen and Tosh helped us up. At this time Ianto came back with some sort of hockey stick which I guessed he was going to use to attack it.

"Owen, don't move." The Doctor told Owen who was still to struggle out of the straps. He complied and stayed still.

We all stayed still, searching around the room for where the glove had disappeared too. I saw Jack give Ianto a look gesturing to the hockey stick, which caused Ianto to send him a glare before they continued looking.

"Where did it go?" Gwen asked.

"I think it went under the cabinet." Martha said, pointing towards one of the cabinets in the room.

"Are you both okay?" Jack asked the two of us.

"Mhm," I nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good."

There was a sudden scuttling noise around the room which brought us all back onto red alert. But every direction we looked, we couldn't see anything. Could it have turned invisible or something? Surely after all the strange things that had happened today, it couldn't get any strange and do that.

Martha leaned over the railings to look, and that's when it got her. It suddenly flew up, grabbing hold of her hand which made her jump and scream before it went straight for her face clinging out to it, sending her back into the wall. I quickly moved over, trying to pull it off of her, along with the help of Gwen and Tosh. Jack and the Doctor also moved over, trying to help. Finally it worked, and Jack had a hold of the glove, managing to chuck it away again. Owen, who now managed to get out of his straps, jumped out of the chair, and placed his foot on the glove stopping it from moving.

"Gun," He called out to Tosh. "Now."

"If you destroy it, the connection could be lost." Tosh warned him.

Owen ignored him, and turned to Jack, holding out his hand towards him. "Jack. Now!" Jack finally complied and chucked his revolver over to him. Owen lifted his foot off of the glove and immediately shot it. There was a sudden spark which caused us all to take cover, and then there was nothing left put a pile of ash on the floor. We all let out a sigh of relief that it was over, and that's when I caught sight of Martha and my eyes widened.

"Oh my God." I said, grabbing the attention of the Doctor and Jack, they also looked over to where I was looking and their eyes widened also. "Martha?" I bent down next to her, looking at her bewildered. Gone was the young, bubbly Martha I knew, and now she was old her skin wrinkled, her breathing heavy. "What's happened to her?"

"It's the glove." The Doctor said his voice slightly dark as he looked over at the pile of ash on the floor. "It did this to her."

"Owen, help us with her." Jack told him as he and the Doctor tried to pick her up. "Owen!" But there was no response from him. I heard the energy monitor start beeping again and looked up at the projection, he was now at 100%. The gun slowly fell out of Owen's hand, like he had no control of his body anymore, which was the case. His eyes were back to being all black again, and he had a sinister smile on his face.

"_**I will the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.**_" Next minute he let out a scream as he fell to the floor, a grey gas pouring out his eyes and mouth to form a cloud and Jack slowly stood up to watch it. The cloud soon formed he figure of a person and it began moving towards Jack before suddenly it lunged.

_XOXO_

We charged down the hospital corridor, minus Jack who was still in the car dead, waiting to wake up again. We had Martha lying on a hospital bed as Gwen and Ianto wheeled it down the corridor along with us. "Police Officer. I need a medic now!" Gwen shouted out, and quickly a group of medics rushed over.

I turned around and saw Owen slowly limping after us and I rushed over to him, placing one of his arms over me for support as he I helped him walk along a bit faster. Suddenly a now revived Jack rushed round the corner, and turned to me and Owen.

"Where did it go?" He asked. "Owen!" Owen simply shrugged as if to say he didn't know as pointed down to the end of the corridor where Martha was now being wheeled into a room. Jack sighed as he rushed over to where the rest of them were standing, watching, worried. "So, what happened to that thing?" Jack asked.

"It's gone." Gwen answered simply.

"So it's out there?" Jack asked.

"We needed to get Martha here." The Doctor said, as if that was the end of the conversation. "She's not well."

_XOXO_

After the medics had wired Martha up to some machinery, Jack and the Doctor went inside. I watched through the window as Jack and the Doctor held up a mirror for her to look at her reflection, and I gulped, wondering how horrible it must be for her right now.

"How do you know her?" the voice of the doctor helping her brought my out of my own thoughts. "I take it you're no family." I was slightly lost for words on how to answer that, but Gwen quickly swooped in and saved it for me.

"She's a neighbour," she said quickly. "We look in, do her shopping, collect her pension, that sort of thing, you know?"

"Her red blood cell count is through the floor and she's massively dehydrated." The doctor told us. "All of which has placed a considerable strain on her heart."

"You've got to help her." I said, the plea clear in my voice.

"We are." She told me. "But you've got to accept she's, what, eighty?"

"Just do what you can, please." I said and with that I walked through the door to join the Doctor and Jack with Martha.

"It must be Death." She said, her voice raspy. "Because it's stolen my life."

The Doctor sighed, taking the mirror away from her. "We'll find a way to reverse this." Jack told her as he walked away to the window. Me, the Doctor and Gwen following.

"Last time, back when Cardiff was a town, it killed twelve people." Gwen told him.

"So?"

"Why didn't it get to thirteen?" Gwen asked.

"And where does this thing about faith come into it?" I added.

Jack nodded, turning to look at the rest of the team. "Ianto, I need answers." Ianto nodded as he quickly got to work. "Owen, I want to back at the Hub. You're not safe."

Owen slowly looked up from Martha and up to Jack. "Jack, I'm free of it, I promise you, and I'm useful. I'm useful here." He said. "When it came through me, I felt it. I know what it is, I know what it wants, it's 'duroc.'"

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Hunger." The Doctor answered for him.

"Where do we look for it?" Gwen asked. "Where do we even start to look for it?"

Jack sighed, pulling a curtain to look out the window. My eyes followed him and caught sight of two Weevils, my mind flashing back to what they had been like with Owen. They only would have come here if what had taken over Owen was there. "I don't think we have to go far." I mumbled.

"It's here." Jack said simply.

"Why would it follow us here?" Gwen wondered out loud.

"I don't think it did." The Doctor said, his voice barely above a whisper as he stared out of the window. "I think it senses the near-dead."

Jack nodded as he moved towards the door. "If you were Death, wouldn't you target a hospital?"

_XOXO_

Jack had called straight in, getting them to evacuate the hospital and soon after that there had been alarm bells ringing everywhere. The Doctor and I had been given spare comms each, although the Doctor had been complaining that they were too big and he didn't need them. Ianto stayed with Martha, continuing the research Jack had got him to do along with checking the hospital communication systems every now and then, sending the information through the comms. The rest of us split off in groups of three, I decided to go off with Owen and Tosh, and the Doctor after a lot of reassurance, reluctantly left me and went off with Jack and Gwen.

"_Owen, Tosh, Kitty." _Jack called to us through the comms and we got into the lift. _"We're on the sixth floor. There's fatalities. Seven of them." _My stomach clenched as that. He was fairly close to thirteen. He certainly didn't hang about.

"_I'm hearing of a fatality during a routine operation." _Gwen added.

"_Let's count that has eight." _Jack said as he done the Maths in his head. _"That leaves five to go." _My eyes widened, did he say only five? That was not good.

"_Oh." _The Doctor said, also catching onto what I noticed.

"_What?" Jack and Gwen asked._

"There's over five of us." Both me and the Doctor told them, my voice a lot more shaky than his.

I hadn't even noticed the lift come to a halt and the doors open; I was far too distracted in my own thoughts. But lucky, Owen had noticed and dragged me through the doors along with him. "Jack, if it was last seen on the sixth, did it go up or down from there?" he asked.

"_Most of the upper floors are evacuated, so if it's still hungry, I was guess that it's gonna…" _

Jack didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence as Owen interrupted him. "We're on the eighth, we'll make our day down." He sighed, grabbing my hand again as he dragged me towards the stairs, leaving Tosh to just follow us.

"Jack, we still have no idea what to do if we find it." Tosh reminded him.

"_Ianto?" _Jack asked.

"_I have searched for the phrase, 'I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.'" Ianto replied. "But I keep getting redirected to Weight Watchers." _I heard the Doctor snigger at that and I rolled my eyes slightly. Out of everyone he would be the one to find humour in any of this.

"_It was a medical journal. History of medicine." _Gwen told him. _"Try under Tavistock or Wellcome."_

_XOXO_

We walked out of the stairwell and through a corridor on the next floor below us. I quickly walked along, trying to catch up with Owen who was walking at a ridiculously fast pace. "We're on the seventh floor." Tosh told us, as she too struggled to try and keep up with him. The next second I knew, all the lights turned out, leaving us in the dark, hardly able to see. Owen froze on the spot, staring down the corridor, making me and Tosh stop as well.

"It's here." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I can feel it."

"Owen, you're scaring me." I said, the feeling in my stomach becoming even worse as the time went on.

"I'm not exactly reassuring myself." He countered. "Come on."

We walked along the corridors, Owen using his senses to find him, but we still checked every room we came across. The corridors were completely pitch black, with only things like x-ray machines lighting then, and then only some of them. I could hear someone whispering, saying the exact same words that I had heard Owen when he was possessed by Death, and I knew that we were very, very close to him. Owen bolted down the corridor with me quickly following him. We reached a corner and turned to see a kid, a boy, not even a teenager, backed up against the door, staring in front of his horrified. I whipped my head around to see the cloud of grey gas not that much further down, surrounding a skeleton form as he walked along.

"Take my hand." Owen told the boy, stretching his hand out to the boy, but he didn't move. We both turned to see Death, getting even closer and quickly turned back to the boy. "Come on!"

Quickly, the boy shot up and ran, grabbing Owen's hand along the way. We met up with Tosh not that further along, and together we continued running, the only way we'd be able to lose that thing and buy ourselves some more time. We ran all the way down to the ground floor, seeing a set of doors, our only way out.

"I think we lost it." Owen said as he all ran towards the doors. Only for them to shut seconds before we got to them. "Maybe not."

"If I can access the correct frequency, I should be able to open the door." Tosh said, grabbing two identical devices out and handing one over to me. "Katherine, help me." I nodded immediately taking it as I tried my best to help her open the doors.

"What's your name?" Owen asked the boy.

"Jaime Burton."

"Right, Jamie, I'm Owen, that's Toshiko and Katherine." He said, pointing towards the two of us. "We're going to get you out of here, mate." He paused for a second; trying to work the computers, but found nothing that would help. "What are you in here for?" he asked Jamie.

"Leukaemia." The boy replied simply.

"Jamie, you're going to be fine, we'll have this door open in a second." Tosh said, trying to reassure him. The boy looked over at me and I just nodded, giving him a small smile before I turned my concentration back on opening the doors again.

"Jamie," Owen said, bending down so he was at the boy's level. "They got you in for a round of chemo, have they?"

"Had that, it didn't work." He told him.

"So why are you here?" Owen asked.

"They're trying to make me have it again." Jamie explained. "It didn't work, though, the cancer just comes back, just makes my hair fall out." He paused for a moment, looking up the stairs again obviously waiting for Death to come for him again. "I'm gonna die. I might as well do it with eyebrows." I turned my head around at that, looking at the boy sadly, not that he noticed. It seemed so sad to see someone give up on their life just like that, especially at such a young age.

"_Ianto, what have we got?" _Jack called through the comms.

"_Back in 1479, the priest discovered that Death needed 13 souls to walk the Earth for eternity." _Ianto told him.

"_He stopped Death at 12." _The Doctor added.

"_It was Faith." _

"_Yeah," _the Doctor said, clearly slightly frustrated. "_We know."_

"_No," _Ianto said. "_The little girl that died and was brought back to life. Her name was Faith. She stopped it."_

"_How?" _Jack asked.

"_It doesn't say."_

"Faith didn't have anything to lose," I heard Owen mumble. "She was already dead."

I saw him take Jamie over to a table further off in the room through the reflection of the door. I frowned, but I was unable to hear the conversation, so I just continued doing my best to open the door along with Tosh, looking over every now and then to where Owen and Jamie were sitting, as well as up the stairs to check if Death was here yet or not. Eventually, the doors beeped and they opened.

"Come on!" I called over to them and quickly Owen stood up, pulling Jamie along with him. He passed Jamie over to us and Tosh quickly took hold of his hand. Owen however, suddenly stopped, staying on the other side of the door, turning his back to me. "Owen?" Slowly he turned around, a slightly guilty look on his face. "You are _not _facing that thing on your own."

"I know what to do." He said simply.

"No." I shook my head, grabbing hold of his arm in an attempt to pull him over on to the other side. "We have no idea what we're dealing with."

"Oh, Kath—" Next second I knew, he pulled me closer to him, and crashed his lips against mine. I froze for a second, shocked, barely able to respond and it felt like everything came to stand still. The kiss was rushed, but was still soft and all too soon he pulled away, leaving me to stare at him, lost for words. "Oh, you're so going to slap me for this." I frowned for a second, unsure of what he meant. But all of it became clear when the doors closed, leaving him still on the other side and he lifted up a hand waving the device that had been in my hand only a few seconds ago.

My eyes widened and I started banging against the door. "Owen, owen, no. Open the door." I turned to Tosh, looking at her with hopeful eyes. "Can't you open it?"

She shook her head. "Not without both of them." She took walked up to the door, banging on it, but not with the force that I had. "Owen, what the hell are you doing?"

I went to say something, but the words never came out of my mouth as I caught site of Death once more, walking slowly down the stairs towards Owen. I gulped, frozen to the spot unable to move as I watched Owen place the device he had taken from me down onto the floor. "How long?" he asked. "How long can you last here with only 12 victims? There's nothing here for you! Owen Harper's soul has left the building. There's nobody here but us dead men." He slowly walked towards Death as it also slowly walked towards him, stopping as they both reached the bottom of the stairs.

"No!" I cried, banging on the doors again, my voice shaky with fear, fear of what was going to happen to him. "Owen!" I barely heard the cries from both Tosh and Jamie as I repeatedly hit my fist on the door. Death reached out a hand towards Owen, but he stopped it, grabbing hold of the skeleton like arm and they were soon in a full on brawl, both of them trying to over-power one another, ignoring me and Tosh and Jamie as he continued to bang against the door. "Doctor!" I cried down the comms, hoping that they would still be in there to stop him. "Jack!" I tried to wedge the doors open, but that was no use either, and I was slowly losing my strength. "Owen…"

There was suddenly a bright light, almost blinding Tosh, Jaime and myself. I could only manage to see as the Doctor, Jack and Gwen made it down to the bottom floor. I saw Gwen try to run towards Owen, to save him, but the Doctor and Jack grabbed hold of her, stopping her from moving any further and the light became brighter and brighter until I couldn't see a thing. I heard Owen scream, and slowly the light faded away, leaving just Owen there on his own, kneeling on the floor, but still conscious. Slowly the doors opened again, and I was the first one to walk through, walking straight towards Owen. He obviously knew what was coming, and looked at me with apologetic eyes as I smacked him across the arm, hard enough that he brought a hand up to rub it.

"Idiot."

_XOXO_

I sat on the metal table in the med bay with Martha and Owen either side of me. I stared at the floor, my eyes becoming droopier the later the night became, and the more tired I became. "So tell me, Doctor, is it worth starting War and Peace?" Owen asked, causing Martha to chuckle lightly from beside me. "I'm sorry that you got hurt. That I got you hurt."

"It's not me that I'm worried about." Martha told him. "You soaked up a colossal amount of energy, but it's dissipating now." She said, looking over to a screen again.

"That doesn't sound good." Owen commented.

"We don't know anything about its properties. Hell, the Doctor doesn't even know." I said, in an attempt to reassure him. "Who knows, it could take 30 years to go away completely."

"Or 30 minutes." Martha just gave a sad smile, hopping off of the table and walking up the steps, off to join the Doctor or someone. I sighed, about to go follow, when I felt a hand on mine and turned around to see Owen looking at me. "Stay with me tonight?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Why?"

"Because, you almost died tonight. I _did _die tonight." He let out a sigh and shrugged. "And I just don't want to spend the night alone."

"So you chose me?"

"I can think of worse company." He smirked and I couldn't help but let out a laugh before his face turned all serious again, showing he was really generally scared about being alone. "Please?"

I heard footsteps and turned to see the Doctor looking down at us. I turned back to Owen and smiled a little, "We'll see." I let out of his hand, and slowly walked up the steps towards the Doctor, when Jack turned up also and Owen's head shot up to look at him.

"Jack." He called out to him, making him stop. "People died because you brought me back. Well, we owe them, you and me. I'm still a doctor, let's put me to work. See if we can't even that score."

"We'll see."

_XOXO_

**Authors Note: So what do you think of Kat and Owen? Someone gave me the idea while ago now, and well, I thought Kat should sort of learn to love again, and then there was Owen. Doesn't mean she's going to be exactly happy about those feelings though, after all she still has feelings for Ryan, but maybe someone will give her a kick up the backside. Anyway, let me if you like it, or if you still prefer Katherine and Ryan.**

**Now I shall reply to anonymous reviews:**

**Ollie; ****OMG, seriously, thank you so much. You have no idea how much I smile every time I come across this review. It makes me so happy to know that some people love this story that much!:) As for the River Song mention, I am planning to go on that far. Seriously, I have plans going up to season 6 so far, already planning season 7! I hope your exams went well too, mine not so much I don't think, but yeah, thank you again. You're like my new best friend. **


	5. A Day In Death

Three days, that's how long it had been. Three days. Three days since I had come to Cardiff along with the Doctor, three days since I almost died, and three days since Owen had died and come back and fought death. Back when I was living on my own Earth, three days would have been nothing to me; it would have probably gone quick for me. But now they just seemed to drag out. Since the death situation, nothing had really happened and it was starting to drive me slightly insane and the Doctor was probably feeling even worse. But I still refused to leave, not until I knew Owen was okay.

I had ended up agreeing to stay at his place that night, and the night after that too. Nothing really happened; I usually ended up falling asleep on his sofa a couple of hours after I got there. It was weird, travelling with the Doctor I never really got tired that often, which is surprising. But over these past few days I had been exhausted. Probably because it was going so slowly. I had tried to keep myself awake; after all, Owen can't sleep anymore. But it was pretty much inevitable. I don't know what he done while I was asleep, but when I woke up he'd be back by my side, watching my slightly in the corner of his eyes. It made me wonder if he watched me the whole night, that would be slightly creepy, but I never really asked.

During the day, he'd try to be his usual self. Make sarcastic remarks and have that stupid little grin on his face. But there were times I would catch him, when he thought no one was looking at him, that little façade would go away and you'd see the shattered person underneath. He wasn't handling this as well as he liked to think he was. And he certainly wasn't okay yet. And I knew for a fact that what he was about to hear wasn't going to make things any better at all. In fact, it was probably going to make it worse.

"Dr Owen Harper, Torchwood Officer 565, I'm relieving you of your position." Jack said from his desk and Owen stood in front of him with me by his side, and Ianto standing a couple of metres away from us. I felt Owen tense up beside me, I knew why Jack was doing this and that kept me quiet, but it sure as hell wasn't going to keep him quiet.

"Bollocks." He said, letting out a sigh of frustration. "I'm sorry Jack, this is bollocks!"

"Hand in your weapon and your security pass." Jack continued, ignoring Owen's tiny little rant.

"Why?" Owen asked. "I'm fine." _No, Owen. You're really not._

Jack's head shot up at that moment, to look at Owen, his eyes completely fixed on him. "Three days ago you died." He reminded him. "We need to examine you. We need to find out what you are." He sighed, his eyes moving down again. "We need to be certain you're okay."

"Yeah, well it almost sounds as if you care. Well done." Owen said, completely sarcastic, of course.

This made Jack's head shoot up again, and he was obviously getting tired of this. "Until I'm confident you're fit for duty, Martha Jones will replace you as Torchwood's new medical officer." He stated.

"She's doing all right out of this, isn't she?" Owen said, a little louder this time, obviously wanting Martha who was just outside with the Doctor to hear. I sighed and hit him in the arm. It was hardly her fault, the only thing she wanted to do was make sure he was okay, not have his job.

"Her and the Doctor have worked out a few tests and examinations." Jack explained. To be honest, that had been the only reason I was fine with this, knowing that Martha and the Doctor had been the ones to work the tests out. If it had been some other doctor I would have been a little sceptical. But at least I knew these tests would be safe, because I knew for a fact the last thing the Doctor or Martha would want to do would be to cause harm to anyone.

"What if I refuse?" Owen asked.

"Owen." I warned.

"You'll be confined to the cells, the tests will be done, and if the results show that you're a danger to the team, appropriate steps will be taken." Jack told him, standing up and walking over to him. Owen sent a glare his way before he moved his eyes down to the floor. "I'm asking you, Owen. Please. Let us help you. Let us make sure you're safe."

Jack's eyes moved over to me for a moment, and Owen's eyes shortly followed looking at me in desperation, like he wanted me to decide what he should do for him. I slowly nodded, knowing that was enough and he let out a sigh before nodding as well. I gave him a small smile and pulled him into a light hug, knowing full well that none of this was easy for him.

"I'm gonna need your gun." Ianto suddenly piped up. Owen suddenly pulled out of the hug, and turned around to look at the Welshman with a glare, but after a few seconds he hesitantly brought his gun out and handed it over. He looked over at me again and I nodded. "And you're security pass." Ianto added, causing Owen to glare at him again. "Please." Owen complied once again, handing his security pass over as Ianto placed both that and the gun into a clear bag with the Torchwood logo on it.

"And how long are the Doctor and Dr Jones' tests going to take?" Owen asked, spitting out the words, obviously still not too happy with the whole idea.

"As long as they need to." Jack answered simply, walking back over to his desk.

"And what the hell am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

Jack shrugged, picking up his mug full of coffee and taking a sip. "We always need someone to make coffee."

"Oh, no." Both Owen, Ianto and I said at the same time, all three of us shaking our heads. That was not going to go down well.

_ XOXO _

I sighed as I perched myself on one of the steps near the med bay, fiddling subconsciously with one of the rips in my jeans. I had chosen not to go with Ianto and Owen to Owen's little lesson of how to make good coffee. While it would most certainly have been more entertaining than just sitting on this step, I didn't really want to be there if it ended up badly, which it probably would.

I was brought out of my own thoughts as the Doctor suddenly jumped onto the steps, making me jump before he sat down on the step next to me. "Boo." He said happily, grinning widely. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't stop the smile forming on my face. "Got you this." He said holding out to me what looked like a games console. "Found this in the archives broken, thought you could use a little entertainment so I fixed it."

"Aren't you supposed to be helping Martha with Owen's tests?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as I took the console out of his hand. I was starting to slightly wonder why it was even in the alien archives, but then I caught sight of the engraving on the back. 5234. _That explains it._

"Fine." The Doctor half pouted, bringing his legs to his chest as he looked away from me. "Don't thank me."

I let out a small laugh and nudged him lightly with my elbow, which made him turn his head back to look at me again. "Thank you." He smiled, rather smugly and I rolled my eyes as I switched the game on. "It's the Super Mario Brothers." I said as the two rather familiar Italian men dressed in red and green appeared on the screen, along with the damsel in the distress known as Princess Peach. I turned my head back up to the look at the Doctor with one eyebrow raised. "You do know that we have Super Mario Brothers here, right?"

The Doctor simply nodded. "Yeah, of course. But this is 53rd century Mario Brothers." He said, as if that would just end the discussion. "Much better."

I shook my head as my eyes moved back to the screen. He was right, it was better, in certain aspects. Especially the effects. But then it is a future video game, of course the effects are going to be better. But 53rd century or not, the story line never seemed to change. There I was once again, for about the 20th time in my life already, helping Mario save Princess Peach in a hope that she'd fall in love with him. Of at least, that's what I had always gathered from the game.

Martha and Jack had appeared not too much later, and by the looks of things they were discussing the tests that Owen would have to go through in a short amount of time. But I didn't really listen, what they were saying would probably be too complicated for me to understand, and I had decided with the three of them already that I'd only be there as Owen's moral support and that was if he even wanted me there. And, I was already far to engrossed in this stupid game. It doesn't matter if it's the same story line, Mario Brothers will always get addictive sooner or later. And for me it was sooner.

The sound of the cups rattling and a few of them shattering made me look up, however. I looked over to see Owen standing by the coffee machine, looking slightly embarrassed and annoyed with himself as he looked over at all of us as we all looked at him. I sighed, thinking about going over to him when I felt someone lightly grab hold of my arm. It was the Doctor, of course, who gave me a slightly sad look as he tried to lead me away.

"Come on." He said as he tried to move me to the right. I went to protest but he got there before I even managed to get a single syllable out. "Listen, listen, listen." He stopped all of sudden, holding my by my shoulders and he looked at me in the eyes. "He'll be fine. Just give him some time, okay?" I nodded. "Okay, now come on. You can help us get everything ready."

I sighed, simply nodding again in agreement as the Doctor lead me over to wherever they had got the tests put in place. My eyes glancing over just once to where the coffee machine was where Owen was now just standing there, talking to Ianto as he tried to clear everything up.

_XOXO_

Owen ran on the treadmill, his eyes fixed forward like he was in concentration. I sat on a table just next to it, my eyes fixed back onto the games console as I tried to get my way through level 3, which was a lot harder than I had expected. Martha and the Doctor stood not too far away, staring at screens with the Doctor wearing his brainy specs as he did so. A beeping suddenly came from the treadmill signalling that Owen was finished, and I quickly slapped down the button before Owen could even reach it, stopping it.

"So, you're choosing me over the boyfriend?" Owen asked Martha. I looked up to see the smirk on his face before rolling my eyes and looking back down again. _Here we go. _I thought to myself. _He's in the sarcastic mood now._

Martha rolled her eyes as well. "Yeah, that's it." She said sarcastically as well as she moved over to the treadmill. "You really don't need to worry, you know, I don't want your job."

"Yes, I know." Owen replied as he moved over the weights and began lifting them. "You just find me irresistible." He smirked and nodded over to me. "Katherine knows all about that."

I saw the Doctor roll his eyes as he continued messing around on the computer. He had learnt over the past three days that no matter how many glares you shot Owen's way, he wasn't going to stop, simply because he knew it got to him. I rolled my eyes as well and looked up at Owen with a glare.

"You can keep me out of this." I said, but it only caused his smirk to grow even wider.

"That's it." Martha said again sarcastically. "Every morning me and Kathy have been discussing ways to get you here like this." Slowly she moved over to the computer, looking at the results. "There's no sign of any muscle decay. You're in great shape, as ever."

"No use coming onto me, Jones. I'm a changed man." I simply snorted at that comment, changed man my ass.

"And, erm, no stiffening anywhere?" Martha asked, as the Doctor handed me one of those scanner things as I walked over to Owen.

"Well…" I stopped short, sending him another glare as I whacked him in the arm, but he only just smirked.

"Just answer the question." The Doctor said in his warning tone, looking over slightly and giving Owen the look that he normally only ever gives Jack.

"No, no signs of rigor mortis." He finally answered, bending down and placing the weights down on the floor before he stood back up again and stood still, ready for me to scan him. "So if I keep up the exercise, I won't atrophy."

"Yep." Martha said simply as she continued looking at the readings. "And bonus, definitely looks like you're not going to age either."

"There's no further signs on cell mutation." The Doctor said, slightly mumbled that we were just only about here it. "You're 100% human."

"100% Owen." I added, flashing him a cheesy smile which caused a smile of his own to appear on his face, which seemed like the first time in a long time. The smile however, disappeared when Gwen's lovely Welsh accent came out of the intercom and filled the room.

"_Hi guys, meeting in the boardroom. Can you three come down?"_

The Doctor and Martha instantly headed out of the room and made their way for the boardroom. But I stood there for a moment, just staring up at Owen with a slight sad look, kind of hesitant to leave him again.

"You better go, Katherine." He finally spoke up, his voice quiet.

"What about you?" I sighed.

He was quiet for a short moment before a small smirk appeared on his face and he nodded. "Hot chocolate with loads of marshmallows."

"What?" I asked, slightly confused as a small laugh escaped from my lips.

"It's what you drink isn't it?"

I sighed before finally nodding. I looked back up at Owen once more, to see the smile had gone again like I had expected. It was obvious he was hating this, being tested, having to make everyone drinks and not being able to do any of the fun stuff. I pulled him into a tight hug, which he slowly returned, burying his head into the crook of my neck before I finally pulled away. Grabbing the games console off one of the tables, I made my way to the boardroom at a fast pace, not wanting to be too late.

_XOXO_

I sat in my chair next to the Doctor, knees brought up to the chest with my arms wrapped around then as we all looked up at an old, black and white picture of a man shown up on the screen with a load of information displayed on the right-hand side of it.

"Henry John Parker." Jack began explaining as he sat down in the chair right at the front of the long desk that occupied the boardroom. "Used to be a looker, now he's 80 off and even I have my limits." The Doctor raised his eyebrows, slightly disbelievingly while I just smirked at the comment, only just noticing Owen enter the room with a tray full of coffee mugs. "Your basic millionaire collector of alien hoo-hah."

"Didn't we file him in the 'mostly harmless' category?" Owen piped up as he went around the table, placing down coffee mugs.

"So what's the problem?" Martha asked with her brows furrowed in confusion, mine as well. After all if this guy was mostly harmless then why had we been called up here in the first place?

"I detected this at 5:17 this morning." Tosh told us, pressing a button which brought up a map which then zoomed into a specific spot. "Parker's house. There's an energy spike coming from it. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Okay. So, the big question is, what's our Mr Parker gone and found this time?" Gwen asked as she looked over at Owen who now currently had his back turned to all of us after handing out the drinks and then quickly switched her mug over with Ianto's.

"Why?" The Doctor asked, leaning back in his chair as he took a sip of tea from his mug. "Do you think he's a threat?"

"Well, he hasn't been up until now. He's a bit Howard Hughes." Gwen explained as she handed sheets of paper around. "We know he's there, we know he's not a threat, but, as the story goes, he hasn't left the house since his wife died. Nobody's seen him since 1986."

"We've been monitoring Park for ages. There's nothing to be sacred of, is there?" Owen piped up again as he took a seat at the very end of the table.

There was a small moment of an awkward silence before Ianto finally spoke up. "Unlike, say, Tintin?" I raised my eyebrows at that, moving my head around to look at Owen who simply shrugged.

"Okay, I never liked Tintin." Slowly, we all began to smirk trying to stifle the laughs that were threatening to escape. "What, he's weird. Funny face. And his hair is just… it's horrible."

Ianto shrugged. "I always loved Tintin."

"Yeah, well, you would. And he never had a girlfriend did he, just the dog." I simply rolled my eyes, taking a sip from my mug as Jack did the same smirking. "So I reckon he was actually shagging the dog." Owen said with a slightly laugh, making my nearly choke on my drink. My head shot around to look at him with a slightly disgusted look, Ianto doing the same.

"Okay, and back to the actual problem here. Alien energy pulse." The Doctor said, clearly feeling just as uncomfortable with the topic as I did.

Gwen nodded. "We've got to check this Parker out, okay?" she said, looking at Jack who just nodded. "Tosh, can you get me complete schematic of the house? Ianto find out exactly what he's got. Get me an inventory of everything that he's bough over the last 10 years. Martha, can you get hold of his medical history?"

Martha nodded. "Sure."

"Doctor, you know more about this stuff than anyone else, can you take a look at the energy pulse and try and make sense of it."

"Got it."

"Okay, let's get to it, guys."

And with that everyone stood up. I hesitated for a moment seeing the look on Owen's face again, but the Doctor grabbed hold of my hand practically dragging me out of my chair as we all left the room, leaving Owen on his own.

"Hey, Gwen any news on Banana Boat?" Jack asked. I frowned again at the name. I had learnt over the past few days that Banana Boat was the name of Rhys' friend who was going to be best man at their wedding.

"Can you believe it?" Gwen sighed. "Best man arrested in Lanzarote."

I raised my eyebrows at that. "What was he arrested for?"

"Ah, dodgy CDs." She replied waving it off.

I nodded and shrugged, taking one last look at Owen who was still sat in the boardroom, before following the Doctor and Martha down to the computers.

_XOXO_

"We know you are." Both me and Martha said at the same time, as Owen went on for the one hundredth time on how he was a brilliant doctor. I didn't take my eyes of the screen of the games console, as Martha also didn't take her eyes off of the computer she was working on. Owen was sitting down on the metal table, tossing a scalpel up in the air and catching it repeatedly.

"So why are you doing my job?" Owen asked, the question directed at Martha, but I was the first one to answer it.

"Because Gwen asked her to." I said, putting the game on pause and placing it down as I looked up at him.

"That's not what I mean." He said, and I caught Martha smirking in the corner of my eyes as she continued working.

"Because you died." I said simply. "And because you need help. That's not a bad thing… Well, it is a bad thing that you died, of course. I mean you died and now you're dead and of course that's bad. But it's not a bad thing that you need help." I sighed, knowing that maybe I had gone on a bit too much and moved my eyes down to look at my boots. "If you know what I mean."

"You know, you're kind of cute when you babble." Owen smirked.

My eyes moved up to look at him again. "Yeah. And you're kind of cute when you're not chucking a scalpel about." I said as I looked at the metal equipment in his hand. "Seriously, stop it."

Owen sighed, as he stopped chucking it around. "But I'm making the sodding coffee!" He complained as he hopped of the table and moved over to the stairs. I sighed, rolling my eyes as I ran a hand through my hair. "I mean, come on, Martha, won't your bloke be missing you?" He paused for a moment his eyes lighting up slightly as he thought of something. "How about Jack? Has he seen Jack? They always get jealous when they meet Jack."

"Owen, I don't want your job, I just want to do mine." Martha snapped as she turned to look at him.

"Okay, I am dead, but I am 100% human." He said. "I'm fine."

I looked down at his hand wide eyed as I saw a few flecks on blood start to trickle down, frowning; slightly surprised he hadn't felt it. "You've just sliced your hand open."

_XOXO_

Owen was sat back down on the metal table, with me sitting in the free space on it next to him, watching closely as Martha slowly began to stich Owen's hand back together. "The wound's not going to heal, so, you're going to have to re-stitch it every week or so." She told him as she looked up at him for a moment. "At least you don't need anaesthetic."

"Yeah, can't feel anything." Owen said his voice only just above a whisper. "I can't feel the needle or thread. I can't feel your hands on mine. Yet I can touch things. I can hold them." I felt him grab hold on my hand as he looked down at it. "I know they're there but… I just can't feel anything. I'm numb."

"Do you see why Jack's worried? Why we're _all_ worried?" I asked him, my eyes fixed on him again as I tried to get my point across. "If you get a bruise it's not going to heal, if you break a bone it's not going to mend. You're… fragile."

"Yeah, well, I'd better get used to doing things myself." Letting go of my hand, Owen took the needle and thread out of Martha's as he slowly began to finish the rest of the stiches himself. I sighed, giving him a small smile as I hopped off of the table and made my way, knowing that he probably didn't want us there right now.

_XOXO_

I was leaning up against the wall, looking down to the floor and I began to play around with the sleeve of my jumper. It took me a moment to actually realize that Martha was by my side, looking at me in concern and Jack had come over, doing the exact same thing.

"Are you okay?" Martha asked quietly.

"Yeah." I answered with a small nod. Staring into space for a short moment before I finally gave in and shook my head. "No." I sighed, finally looked up at her. "He was stitching his own hand together, and he couldn't feel anything. And I wanted to help him, but I have no idea how."

"You care about him?" Jack asked. I merely shrugged in response, my eyes diverting down to the floor. "You do. You can't deny that." I let out a deep sigh, my eyes moving back up him, knowing that the look on my face would say all he needed to know. Jack nodded once, taking hold of my hands and dragging me past the Doctor who was messing around on one of the computers and onto the sofa nearby, forcing me to sit down as Martha followed.

"I know." He said simply, his hands still on mine as he squeezed them lightly. "And you know what? It's okay. There's nothing wrong with caring about him, and maybe feeling… other things too." I gave him the look again and he nodded. "I get it. I do. You don't want to forget… you know who."

"You make it sounds like he's Voldemort." I commented, looking at Jack, sceptically.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Point is, everyone has to move from these things on sooner or later. It's been what? A year in linear time. Two years for you if you count the year that never was. How long are you gonna wait, Kitty?" My eyes moved down from him to the floor, knowing that he was right, but not wanting to admit it yet.

"You can't keep thinking 'what if he hasn't moved on yet?', because you'll never know." Martha added. "He could have moved on already. Or he might do in the future. But he will have to, just like you have to. And if it feels right, right now, then you shouldn't even think about pushing it away."

I nodded once. "Yeah." My eyes moved back up to my two friends and gave them a small smile.

"Go see him." Jack said, stepping up and moving over to the chair at the computer desk next to the Doctor. He grabbed my jacket that had been laying there, chucking it over to me. "I wouldn't want to know what Owen will do when he's left to his own devices. And while he thought the games console was a good idea to keep you occupied." He nudged the Doctor lightly, forcing him into the conversation. "I don't want you getting square eyes."

"Oi." The Doctor whined. He mumbled something incoherently, although I guessed it was probably about Jack as his eyes moved over to me.

"So basically you're making me his personal body guard of sorts?" I questioned Jack, arching one eyebrow up at him and shrugged the jacket onto my shoulders.

Jack nodded once, his authority figure suddenly coming out to play. "Yes, I am." He walked back over to me, placing his hands on my shoulders as he slowly guided me down to the steps towards the cog shaped door. "Now, go and do your job." He pushed me forward one step, his hand slapping me on the bum lightly.

I jumped around, glaring at him playfully before giving him a mock salute. "Yes, sir." I looked over at both Martha and the Doctor, giving them a small wave and then turned my attention fully onto the Doctor. "Don't you dare think about playing my game and messing it up, because if you do, I will hurt you."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, holding his hands up in surrender. "I won't." He said, turning his attention back to the computer.

"Good." I smiled, looking at the three of them before dashing off towards the exit.

_XOXO_

The walk to Owen's apartment was a long one. I had taken several wrong turns but had managed to realize them before I had gotten too deep in the wrong path that I would have been truly lost. The cold wind whipped at my loose curls and nipped at my face, making me wish that I had begged the Doctor to use the TARDIS or Jack to use his vortex manipulator so I could have gotten there without having to go through this.

Finally reaching his apartment, I bounded up the stairs, stopping short halfway up when I heard a commotion going on, on the other side of the door. There were two voices, each of them shouting at the other. One was Owen; the other was a woman that sounded like Tosh. I frowned, stepping quietly up the last few steps and up to the door. Opening it cautiously so it didn't creek, I stepped inside, going completely unnoticed by the arguing duo that was in fact Owen and Tosh.

"Stop it! What's wrong with you?!" Tosh cried, standing on one side of the kitchen counter while Owen stood on the opposite side, the one closest to me.

"I'm broken Tosh!" Owen snapped. "I don't work. I've got to heartbeat, no feelings, no tears. I've got nothing to give anyone! Do you understand that? Maybe that's what you want, maybe you want somebody who's as screwed up as you are. Who's twisted and screwed up like you are. Well, do you want to see broken? Do you want to see broken?"

"Owen! Stop it! What are you doing?" Tosh screeched as Owen bent his finger backwards, a crunching noise filling the room as his bones broke underneath his forceful touch, his facial expression not changing during that time, showing no feelings of pain. I gasped, and Owen's head snapped round to me, noticing me for the first time. His eyes moved to the floor before back up to me, and then he took off, running and leaving me and Tosh standing in the room.

I looked over to Tosh who was standing in the same spot, unsure of what to do. I looked over at her sympathetically. "You couldn't lock up, could you?" I asked and she nodded once in response. "Thanks." And with that I took off as well, trying to catch up with Owen before he done something stupid. Jack was right; he shouldn't be left to his own devices.

"Owen!" I shouted out as I reached the bottom on the building with him already running down the street. No response. I sighed, running as fast as I could to catch up with him. He was fast and already a good few feet in front of me, but after travelling with the Doctor, I was the better runner and was soon slowly starting to catch up with him.

He ran through the park people moving out of the way while I had to push past them in attempt to not lose the grasp that I almost had on him. We ran through the city centre, right past the TARDIS which was still parked where we had left it days ago, past the hub and towards the bay. When he reached the edge he jumped, into the water. I stopped at the edge, looking down, and waiting for him to come up. But when he didn't, I didn't hesitate for a second before jumping in, swimming down to I was facing for him.

He was almost down at the bottom. But he was fine; his eyes were open, staring at me. I frowned for a moment, but it was then that I realized he had no breath. He didn't need it. He could stay in this water for as long as he liked and wouldn't die. However, I couldn't and it wasn't too long before I started to find it hard to stay under water for much longer. I looked over at Owen, but it looked like he wouldn't be leaving any time soon. I looked at him sadly, before quickly swimming up to the edge, coughing badly as I finally reached the surface, trying to regain my breath. I felt two pairs of strong hands lift me out of the water and a heavy coat was placed over me. I looked down to see I was wearing the Doctor's trench coat and then looked up to see the Doctor bending down beside me and Jack looking down at him.

"I'm relieving you of your post as body guard." Jack said as his eyes moved down to the water.

"Why?" I asked, wrapping the brown coat round me further.

"Are you kidding me?" Jack said turning to look at me. "You stayed down there until the very last minute, it's freezing out here. Body guard means you watch out for him, not jump in the water after him."

I sighed, looking down to the floor, knowing he was right. It was a stupid decision and I was regretting it now as the cold Cardiff air felt even colder against my wet skin. I shivered and felt a pair of arms wrap around me bringing me closer into a warm hug.

"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked.

I nodded once. "Cold, though."

"We should get you inside."

I shook my head. "Not until he's back up and out of the water too."

The Doctor sighed, but he never protested. He just kept his arms wrapped around me in attempt to keep me as warm as possible as I pulled his coat even tighter against me. We waited for a good twenty minutes, but there was still no sign and eventually the Doctor gave up on waiting and began dragging me towards the hub. I didn't try and struggle, just wanting to be in the warm again when there was a loud thud of a body hitting the decking. My head snapped round to see Owen, soaked to the bone, lying on the decking.

"Thirty six minutes." Jack said, looking down at his vortex manipulator. "Not bad."

"You were watching?" Owen asked, looking between Jack and the Doctor, who still had a hold of me.

"Skinny guy in tight jeans runs into water? Beautiful young girl follows? I was taking pictures." I rolled my eyes, knowing that he probably did as well. Jack shrugged, walking across the decking towards us, taking a hold of me as well before turning back to Owen who clambered up to his feet. "How long is this gonna go on for, Owen?"

_XOXO_

I sat in the conference room along with the Doctor, Jack, Gwen, Martha and Ianto. Several towels were wrapped around me as I dried off in the warmth of the hub, and a cup of coffee which Ianto had made especially for me was steaming away in my hands.

"Ianto, what have you found out about Parker?" Gwen asked as he stood at the front of the table, looking at all of us.

"I've identified some of the things he's purchased over the past year." The Welshman answered as he looked through his little notepad of things he had jotted down. "We've got a Dogan eye. A pair of Myakian wings, some meteorites. An Arcateenian translation of James Herbert's _The Fog. _But there are a few things we've never seen before."

"So one of these is causing the energy spikes?" Gwen asked.

"Looks like it." Ianto confirmed.

"And they're getting bigger." The Doctor added. "Much bigger. Dangerously big."

"Right, okay, we need to get in there." Gwen said simply, her eyes moving to Jack as she did so. She grabbed hold of a brown chunky folder, passing it across the table to Ianto. "Parker employs a Mr Phillip Farrington to run security. There's at least six guards, CCTV everywhere. All of which we can bring down by taking out the generator. But then there's these." She pressed a button bringing up an image of the house and image of a device flashing up on it. "Heat sensors."

"As in body heat?" Martha asked.

"Yep. Solar powered." Gwen answered. "There's one in every doorway, every window."

"So, how are we going to get past those?" I asked, my eyes moving around the table to look at everyone with one brow raised.

"Sounds likes you need a dead man." Owen's voice came from behind me. All the eyes in the room moved to him to see him standing in the door way, a towel hanging over his shoulders. "Someone with no body heat." He walked further into the room. His eyes were completely fixed on Jack. "What have you got to lose?"

All eyes moved to Jack as we watched him try to make a decision in his head. After only a short while he looked over to Ianto, pointing to Owen and nodding once. Ianto then stood up, pulling a gun out and placing it in Owen's hand along with his security pass that had been kept.

It was then we heard the sound of heels clipping on the floor, stopping just outside the room. I looked over, seeing Tosh staring silently at Owen, clearly not sure what to say to him after his sudden outburst earlier. Her eyes glanced over to me, examining me for a brief movement before looking back at Owen again.

"Tosh."

"I turned your telly off." She said bluntly to him, passing his keys over to him and then walked away.

_XOXO_

I leaned against the black SUV that was parked just outside Mr Henry Parker's house, watching as Owen prepared to go in, Martha standing in front of him as she went through a little warning speech. "If you hurt yourself you will not recover. It's like I said, any bruises you get, they're not gonna heal. Do not engage in physical combat. One punch, you're gone. Be careful."

"I understand." Owen said. "I'm made of glass." He turned around and began to walk off and I suddenly found myself pushing myself off the SUV, taking a few steps towards him.

"Owen." He stopped turning to look at me expectantly. I stood there for a moment lost for words before I smiled at him softly. "Just, be careful." He smiled once and nodded about to take off again when Jack called out to him.

"Oh, and you'll need this." He threw a white shirt at him, and I had to try and to stop myself from laughing at what was printed on it. Owen didn't seem to notice it yet however as he just stuffed it into his back and set off. I sighed moving back to lean against the car again, turning the comm I had been given on so I could listen in, and make sure everything was okay.

"_Owen." _Tosh's voice came down the comms after a few minutes.

"_Yeah, hi, Tosh." _Was Owen's reply.

"_Okay, the power in the house is supplied from one private electrical generator. There's a backup unit but take the main one down and you've got one minute 20 of blackout time."_

"_You can only get rid of one of the blokes, yeah?"_

"_Might look a bit suspicious if there were two phone calls." _Ianto replied.

"_Try and make it the big one, okay?" _

I giggled at that, pressing a button on the comm so I could speak down it. "Wimp." I commented, smirking slightly.

"_Shut up, you."_ Owen whispered. _"You're not even supposed to have one of these."_

I looked over to Jack who was smirking and shrugged. "I'm persuasive, and Jack loves me so…"

It was quite for a few short moments until Owen cursed down the comms. _"Arse."_

"Not the big one?" I asked, wincing slightly at the thought now. One punch and he could be gone, let alone getting flattened by a big, bulky man.

"_Not the big one." _He confirmed.

The comms went silent after that for a very long while, and I guessed that Owen was making his way in. My fingers drummed nervously against my leg as I waited impatiently for Owen to speak again, telling us that he made it. I felt someone take hold on my hand, stopping me from drumming the tune that I had been and squeezed it. I looked up at the Doctor and smiled, thankful for the reassurance.

"_Okay guys, I'm here." _Owen said. I could hear the sound of a metal door creaking open and he got to the generator. It was then I heard a deep voice that didn't belong to Owen, warning him off but then there was a thud and it all went silent. I was just hoping it was the guard knocked out and not Owen. My hopes were confirmed true when Owen spoke sarcastically down the line. _"Yeah, okay guys. Very funny."_ I giggled as he finally noticed the printing of TinTin on the t-shirt. _"Bet it was your idea, Katherine."_

"Janto's actually." I corrected.

"_Janto?" _Ianto interrupted, sounding confused.

"Yeah, you and Jack. Jack and Ianto. Janto." I looked over to Jack who raised an eyebrow at me. "No?" He shook his head. "Fine. I won't say it again." My eyes moved over to look at the house, seeing through the windows that the lights were flickering before they all suddenly went out, signalling that Owen had taken out the generator.

"_One minute 20 until the backup generator comes online." _ Tosh told him. But the message that I managed to catch come from the Farrington comms told us something completely different.

"_Farrington to all units. The backup generator will be running in 45 seconds. Stay at your posts, please. Mr Parker's personal generator is unaffected."_

"_Sorry, Owen." _Tosh apologised. _"They've obviously had some work done."_

Owen was quiet for a short while after that, and I squeezed the Doctor's hand as I waited anxiously. It sucked having to have it be like this. Waiting a good distance from the house, only knowing he got through if he confirmed it, not being able to see anything. It sucked big time and I was mentally curing the heat sensors for it repeatedly.

"_Heat sensors." _Owen finally said, although he was mumbling to himself. _"I am literally too cool for school." _I scoffed at that. But hearing the small playful warning growl from Owen, I decided to not make any official comment on it and just leaned back, waiting for him to speak again, or anyone to speak again. _"Right, I'm in." _He finally confirmed.

"Okay, the energy reading seems to be coming from the first floor. A room at the back of the house." The Doctor spoke, having worked on the energy spike with Tosh throughout most of the day. He didn't have his own comm, but he was standing close enough next to me that he would be able to be heard.

"_Can you guys give me anything else?" Owen asked hopefully._

There was a short pause before Tosh answered. "_No. The energy source is playing havoc with the system. Sorry." _

"_No worried. I'm getting used to being in the dark." _I winced and smiled sadly at that, knowing that he meant that it many more ways than just one.

"_Hold it there." _Came another deep voice, which I guessed was another security guard. I froze, momentarily worried for Owen as I crossed my fingers, hoping that the guard wouldn't do anything rash to hurt him.

"_Evening." _Owen said. "_Nice place you've got here. Love what you've done with the pictures." _I shook my head slightly. Trust Owen Harper to be so casual when he was probably being held at gun point right now.

"_Who are you?"_ The guard asked. _"Why aren't the sensors picking you up? Okay, stop! Stop or I'll shoot."_

"_No, you won't. You're a security guard. That gun's just for show, isn't it?" _Owen said. His voiced sounded taunting and I shivered slightly. _"Do you know what a bullet does to a living person? It's not like a knife through butter. No, no, no, no. It rotates, tears into the flesh and the gooey stuff behind. Rips into the organs, oh, it's not nice." _I winced, feeling sick to my stomach for a moment just thinking that he had had to go through that sort of pain. _"But, anyway. I haven't got any body heat; you must know what that means. You can't kill a dead man."_

"_What are you?" _The guard asked, clearly getting scared at Owen's taunting words.

"_I'm wrong."_

"_What are you?"_

"_I'm broken."_ Owen said. _"I'm Dr Owen Harper. And I'm having one hell of a day." _There was a loud thud as Owen clobbered the security guard and he fell to the floor.

I smiled for a short moment, knowing that he had probably got through everything by now, but the worry was still there for a moment. And I kept my ears open. It was completely silent, no loud thuds or gun shots. And I tried to take this as a good thing, that he was okay and that he was just searching for the place the energy spike was coming from. I looked over at Martha, who was staring at the ground, obviously waiting for some sort of reassurance that he was still okay too.

"_Yes?"_ Came a voice that seemed to belong to an elderly man. I guessed instantly that Owen had found Henry Parker and possibly the thing creating the energy spike and a small bit of relief washed over me.

"_It's okay, mate. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a doctor." _Owen reassured him.

"_You're a very violent doctor, I've been watching you."_

"_Henry Parker, yeah?" _Owen asked.

"_You're Torchwood, yeah?" _Henry asked, and my eyebrows shot up._ "Did the American send you?"_

"_Yeah, he sent me. How do you know so much about us?" _Owen asked.

"_They could have sent that Japanese girl. I liked her." _Henry said, sounding clearly disappointed that he had in fact got Owen instead of Tosh.

"_Yeah, well, I'm sorry, you got me."_

"_Is she on your phone thing? The earpiece?"_ Henry asked before he suddenly called out to Tosh. _"Hello! Just to say that you've got very lovely legs. You should show them off more." _There was a sudden large amount of coughing coming from Henry and I frowned slightly. The man was ill. I guess it was to be expected. He is in his eighties after all.

"_What's wrong with you?" _Owen asked.

"_Three heart attacks and a failed bypass." _Henry answered and I winced slightly, surprised he had survived all of that. _"But I'm fine because I have this. It's called The Pulse."_

"_You know what it is?"_

"_I named it." _Henry told him. _"It's keeping me alive. No! You're not taking it."_

"_It could be dangerous." _Owen argued. _"We've been detecting massive energy readings."_

"_I don't care. All I know is that it works."_

"_Well, I'm sorry." _Owen said. _"But it doesn't."_

"_What?"_

"_The energy isn't going into you." _Owen explained as I heard the continuous beeps from the scanner as he took readings of it. _"The power's just building up inside that thing. That's what we've been detecting but it isn't actually doing anything for you."_

"_You're wrong. I can feel it." _Henry tried to argue. _"No. No. I'm not going to die." _

"_Listen, please, listen to me." _Owen said as he tried to calm the old man down. _"There are loads of people's lives at risk. If that thing explodes, then we don't know what the fall-out will be."_

"_You're young, you don't understand what dying feels like." _Henry snapped.

"_Believe me, I do. I really do."_

"_There's nothing there."_

"_Where?"_ Owen asked.

"_On the other side, nothing, I'm dying." _Henry said. _"Take away my Pulse and I'm gone. My body decomposing."_

"_You can't stop it Mr Parker." _Owen said softly. _"I'm sorry but it's going to happen one day._

"_It'll be dark and I'll be alone."_

"_Where are you now?" _Owen asked, but didn't even give Henry and seconds chance to even try and answer. _"It's dark and you're all alone. So what's the difference?"_

"_I don't understand what's keeping me here." _There was another burst of coughing from Henry, which soon calmed down probably thanks to Owen as he tried to calm down his breathing.

"_It's hope. That thing, it's just hope. Do you really think all this is better than death?"_ Owen asked him, his voice completely serious now.

"_It's got to be. It is better!" _Henry replied.

"_You're just scared of the darkness." _ Owen countered. "_Join the club. Trust me; I know how shit everything can be."_

"_Don't you sit there pontificating. You're just a boy." _Henry sneered. _"What do you know about anything?" _

I sighed and shook my head, and I spoke down the comm, hoping that Henry would be able to hear. "Trust me Mr Parker, sir. You have no idea what he's been through. He understands everything a lot more than you think."

There was a short pause before Henry spoke, directing his question to Owen. _"Is that the new brunette I've seen you with?" _He asked. There wasn't a worded response, but from what I guessed, Owen had nodded. I just raised my eyebrow wondering how he even noticed that I had been at Torchwood the past few days. _"She's very loyal to you." _

"_Yeah, yeah she is." _Owen agreed his voice barely above a whisper.

"_I mean it. You keep her. You always need people like that around you." _Henry spoke, almost like he was Owen's father, giving him some sort of life lesson. The old man sighed. _"I've travelled the world. I fought in the war. Started my own business. I made a fortune! Married. Widowed. My collection, all of it, I've done so much. And this is where I end up, alone, lying in my own piss. And do you know what I want?" _

"_Clean sheets?"_ Owen suggested. He was being half serious; the other half was just trying to bring some light to the situation.

"_I want a steak." _Henry corrected. _"Medium rare. Black pepper sauce. Look at me. Fed through a tube. I might as well be dead already." _The elderly man stopped as he realized what he had just said. _"I might as well be dead… Why don't you take it? Take it." _It was silent for a moment as the exchange of the Pulse went on, and then Owen turned his attention back to him.

"_Well?"_

"_Oh, Christ, it's dark." _Henry replied. The fear was clear in his voice, and I felt my heart go out for him. _"I'm alone, I'm so alone."_

"_It's alright. I'm here with you." _Owen said, trying to reassure him again.

"_I'm still stuck here though. I'm this bed. In the dark." _Henry sighed.

"_You know what?" _Owen asked. _"I'm going to come back. You and me, we're going to face all of this together. I'm going to help you."_

"_Torchwood!_" Henry said, his voice suddenly turning from tired to being full of excitement. "_If you come back, you can tell me all about it. Tell me what it's like. I want to hear about the aliens and everything! I need to know there's not out there. That this isn't all there is."_ There was a short pause. Owen was hesitating. _"Oh, come on, I'm dying. Who am I going to tell? The Angel Gabriel?... If you come back, I won't tell that brunette girl that you're still holding my hand." _I smirked, letting out a small laugh that went through down the comms and into Owen's ear.

"_Well, maybe." _Owen said, seeming to laugh as well.

There was a sudden gasp for breath and my body froze. It was most definitely Henry. He was dying. I said nothing, staying silent, just hoping that Owen could do something. It was only when the heart monitor flat-lined that I felt the horrible feeling rise in my stomach again. He truly was gone. I heard Owen, trying to work in the background, CPR I guessed, not realizing the obvious. But it wasn't long before he did.

"_I'm so sorry." _I heard Owen whisper to Henry, hitting something in frustration. _"I'm so sorry." _He let out a yell, hitting the bed again.

"Owen. Listen to me, just calm down." I said softly, knowing that this was the only comfort I could give him at the moment. "Don't you dare blame yourself for this. It wasn't your fault."

"_Owen. Owen, can you hear me?" _Tosh called out. _"Owen, come in!"_

"_Yes. Yeah, I'm here." _His voice sounded shaky, and I was becoming unsure if he was actually crying or not.

"_The device? Is it doing anything?" _Tosh asked. "_Because the energy readings coming from it are…" _She stopped short for a moment. _"Owen? It's going off the screen. It's going to explode!" _

I froze dead on the spot, my chest tightening finding it hard to breath. I squeezed the Doctor's hand which was still in mine hard as my head snapped around to look at Jack. "Tosh, what can we do?" he asked.

"_Nothing! There's nothing!"_

"_It's okay." _Owen said quietly. "_I'm going to hold it."_

"Owen what are you doing?" Jack hissed.

"_See if I can absorb it." _Owen continued.

"_Owen the energy reading is off the scale. You won't survive." _Tosh warned.

"_Yeah, well, that's okay. These things happen." _

"There must be something we can do." Martha said desperately, her eyes moving down to the floor in thought.

"_Martha?" _Owen called out.

"Owen!" Martha answered.

"_If it destroys me, they're going to need a new doctor." _Owen told her. _"You've got all the credentials. I'd be honoured if you took it." _Martha said nothing, just smiled sadly as she looked to the floor. _"Jack? If you even attempt to bring me back again… Gwen, Ianto. It was fun. Mostly. Tosh, I'm sorry about earlier. And thank you to all three of you." _He paused, for a moment taking a deep breath. _"Katherine." _ I said nothing, staying silent, not really having to power to say anything. _"Katherine, come on, you were there before, answer me."_

I took a shaky breath before I answered. "Owen."

"_I'm sorry for all my shit you've taken these past few days." _His voice broke at the end and my heart sunk, just wishing I could be there to hug him.

"Don't even apologise." I sighed, wiping a few tears that had fallen down my cheek away with the sleeve of my jumper. "See you when you get out of this, yeah?" I refused to even think of him dying as a possibility. He was going to come out of this alive.

However, he never responded to that. _"Doctor, you keep on looking after her, okay?" _The Doctor just nodded, knowing that he didn't even really need to answer to that. It was then all eerily silent for a moment, and the Doctor wrapped me into a comforting hug as Owen absorbed all the energy, still hoping he would survive, not wanting the outcome to be any different.

_XOXO_

He'd survived, and I couldn't have felt any more relieved in my life. Of course he got a slap from me when he got back, although it was useless as he couldn't feel it. The Pulse was packed safely into the backpack as we all travelled back in the SUV to the water power. Waiting for us as we arrived there was Gwen, Ianto and Tosh. Owen was the first to clamber out of the car, opening the door for me and Martha so that we could both do the same.

"Well, I'm sorry, Dr Jones. No vacancies in Cardiff just yet." Owen said to Martha and flashed a small smirk.

"That's okay. I reckon you're…" She stopped, a smile forming on her face. "I was going to say fine, but we all know you're a hell of a lot more than that." The two of them grinned as they hugged each other before Martha went way to say goodbye to everyone else, and then Owen's attention turned on me.

"Guess you're leaving now then?" He asked.

I simply nodded. Martha was leaving, and both me and the Doctor both came to an agreement that we should probably leave as well. "Don't think you've seen the last of me, though. I'll pop back to Earth for a visit sooner or later." I shrugged, a playful smirk appearing on my face. "We're time travellers, who knows? I could even be back tomorrow."

Owen laughed, giving one small nod as if holding me to that. Then his face became serious. "Thank you. For everything."

I simply smiled at him and grabbed him, pulling him into a rib crushing hug which he instantly returned. I buried my face into his shoulder for a moment just enjoying the embrace when I felt him place a gentle kiss on my cheek.

"Oi." I heard both Jack and the Doctor call at once.

I shook my head pulling out of the hug and smiled at Owen again. "It's what I'm here for." I reached into my pocket, pulling out a small piece of paper with a few numbers written on it, handing it over to him. "Keep this. You ever need me. Just ring." Owen nodded. "Goodbye." I gave him one more, quick hug before I left him. Making my way around Gwen, Tosh, Ianto and Martha giving them all hugs and saying my goodbyes before I finally turned to Jack. "Well, this little escapade has certainly been interesting."

"Oh, it's been fun." Jack said, his eyes switching between both me and the Doctor. "You know it has."

I grinned at him, outstretching my arms for a hug and he complied, picking me up slightly as he did so, so that I was at his height. After a little while he placed me down, cupping my face lightly with one of his hands. "You can so come back any time, Kitty."

"Maybe I will." I said, my eyes moving to look at the Doctor for a moment and then back to Jack again. "One day."

The four of us; Me, The Doctor, Jack and Martha all gave our little salutes once more. And with that he all set off in our separate directions. Martha, off back to England while me and the Doctor took a few steps into the TARDIS. "You lot will like this bit." The Doctor said as he stopped at the door, grinning at the Torchwood team before he finally stepped inside.

I flopped down onto the pilot seat, looking back on the last crazy few days that I had, had in Cardiff a smile growing on my face as I then thought of the other crazy adventures that were awaiting us. I looked up at the Doctor who was looking at me expectantly.

"Ready?" He asked.

I nodded once, grinning. "Ready."

The Doctor grinned once and flipped a leaver. And with that we were off once again. Off out in a tiny blue box to explore the universe.

_XOXO_

**Okay, here comes my really long and probably pathetic explanation of why this has come so late. School has been getting unbelievably stressful, I can't even explain. I've also moved house during this time as well. I don't deal well with stress so let's just say the time I've had to myself I've been spending watching Doctor Who and crying into my pillow and roleplaying my emotions out on tumblr.**

**This chapter was also a little bit of a challenge to write. Because the episode is rather Owen based. And while I wanted Katherine to be there, I didn't want her to be following Owen around all the time. So I had to come up with some of my own scenes which being the perfectionist I am had to be great against the rest of it. So I spent ages doing that, trying to think and write up scenes as good as I could. **

**But, while I was thinking of those scenes, I have written bit's up for Partners in Crime, so hopefully I can get that up quicker than I got this one up. I'm not promising anything though. But I will just say I'm not giving up on this story.**

**Also, in recent lights, I've decided to make a Tubmlr blog dedicated to these stories, mainly so I can update you on when roughly I think I'll be able to get a next chapter up instead of leaving you to wait in the dark like this. The url is the ****thekatstewartseries****, hope you can all view it. :} **

**It's been officially a year today since I started this series as well! I wrote the first chapter "Smith Jones and Stewart" in "Black Stone Turned Into Dust" on the 5/5/12 and now it's a whole year later. Seriously, I wasn't even expecting to get this far 'cause I wasn't expecting the response I got. So thank you so much. **

**What's everyone thinking of the second part of series 7 of Doctor Who anyway? Any good theories on who Clara is?**

**I shall now end this long authors note. Please review and whatever. Next chapter shall be Partners in Crime when Katherine will meet one of our favourite gingers. **


	6. Partners In Crime

It had been a while since the Doctor and I had last been on Earth. It was nice to come back every now and then and feel a bit of… normality. Although, you can't get much normality when you're with the Doctor, whether you were on Earth or not. But it was still nice. While it still wasn't what I've got used to calling _my _Earth, it was all the same apart from the obvious. It just gave me a sense of feeling at home again.

The two of us walked through a busy London street, dodging the many people that were out in the morning rush hour as they hurriedly made their way to their jobs that were awaiting them. We stopped as we came to a building that had a rather large plaque with the word 'Adipose Industries' written on it. The two of us looked at each other, giving a small a nod as we both made our way closer to the building.

This whole situation had occurred during one of the many phone calls that I had with Owen, an effort to try and entertain him during the long nights he had to spend alone in his flat. Adipose Industries was a company that sold weight loss pills. Owen's mother had been on them apparently, and she'd lost a drastic amount on them in just a few weeks and both of us had come onto a quick agreement that nothing that was human would be able to do that. Not in this day and age anyway. So, instead of the whole Torchwood team making a long journey out to London, I made the suggestion that me and the Doctor would check it out. We needed something really exciting after all, it had been a few days since we'd had to run for our lives, and as mad as it sounds, I was missing it.

So here we were, going undercover as a pair of Health and Safety inspectors. I'd smartened myself up a bit for the job, wearing a black blazer along with a white top and a pair of black jeans. However, the shoes never changed and I wore my white converse. The Doctor just was wearing his brown suit this time, trench coat and white converse included.

We neared the back of the building, stopping at a fire exit. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver as I went on look out, checking to see no one was watching as he broke into the door. The exit lit up with a large spark and a loud crack as the Doctor finally got us inside and the two of us slipped through into a long abandoned corridor.

We walked through the rather long corridor as we tried to find our way around the place. The Doctor reached into his pockets as he searched around for his physic paper and turned his head to look at me. "Nina Dobrev, yeah?" I nodded. Ever since I went undercover at the pharm I had grown to like the name Nina Dobrev as my undercover name. The Doctor nodded as well and he pulled the physic paper out as a security guard came walking our way. "John Smith and Nina Dobrev, Health and Safety." He said, flashing the physic paper. The security guard simply nodded as we continued walking.

From there we found our way to a lecture hall where we had heard a presentation was going on, thankfully not bumping into anyone else on the way there. However, just as a small precaution we decided to sneak into the projector room. I stood over on the left side of the projector, peering through the small window into the lecture hall. The Doctor stood behind me, his brainy specs on as he done the same and rested his arms lazily on my shoulders.

Finally, after a couple of dozen people filed into the room and took their seats, a woman stepped onto the platform. I could tell instantly from the way she dressed and the intimidating look she had about her that she was in charge of this whole outfit. She wore a long, black pencil skirt with a matching black suit jacket accompanied by a pair of black heels. Her silky light blonde hair was tied up into a neat, tight bun. A pair of thick, black, square glasses were placed on top of her icy blue eyes. The only colour to her outfit was her bright red lipstick and red polish on her nails which had been manicured perfectly.

"Adipose Industries, the 21st century way to lose weight." She began. "No exercise, no diet, no pain, just lifelong freedom from fat, the holy grail of the modern age. And here it is." She lifted up a small red and white pill in her hands, holding it between her thumb and one of her fingers. "You just take one capsule, one capsule, once a day for three weeks. And the fat, as they say…"

"_**The fat just walks away.**_" A computerized voice finished off for her as the words appeared on the screen behind her.

"Excuse me, Miss Foster, if I could?" A dark skinned woman in a white striped shirt and brown jacket cut in. "I'm Penny Carter, science correspondent for _The Observer. _There are a thousand diet pills on the market, a thousand conmen stealing people's money. How do we know the fat isn't going straight into your back account?"

I couldn't help but nod in agreement. Even though I knew this one seemed to work, I knew for fact there were so many false diet plan schemes out there on the market. "Point." I mumbled, listening intently to Miss Fosters reply.

"Oh, Penny." She said in a mockingly sweet voice. "If cynicism burnt off calories, we'd all be thin as rakes." She gave off a smile that seemed alien to her face, trying to be funny, but her voice just made it sound strict and mocking. "But if you want the science, I can oblige." She took her glasses off smugly as the presentation began.

"_**Adipose Industries.**_" The computerized voice spoke again as a diagram of a human body along with other chemicals appeared onto the screen. "_**The Adipose capsule is composed of a synthesised, mobilising lipase, bound to a large protein molecule. The mobilising lipase breaks up the triglycerides stored in the adipose cells, which then enter…"**_

I caught sight of a man entering the room in the corner of my eye, immediately noticing the two of us. I nudged the Doctor lightly, drawing his attention away from the presentation and nodded towards the man. "Health and Safety." The Doctor said, using the default without seeing the flaw as he held up the psychic paper and turned his attention back to the presentation.

The man frowned, his head snapping to look at me for some sort of explanation for why Health and Safety inspectors would even be here. My mind quickly searched for something to say that he would probably buy. "Film Department." I blurted out. However, the man seemed to take it and nodded, turning his attention back to his job.

The presentation ended and Miss Foster reappeared back on the platform. "100 percent legal, 100 percent effective."

"But, can I just ask." Penny Carter piped up again, clearly not done. "How many people have taken the pills to date?"

"We've already got one million customers in the Greater London area alone," Miss Foster answered placing her glasses back on. She was clearly starting to sound annoyed by Penny's questions, but was doing a pretty good job of hiding it. "But from next week, we start rolling out nationwide. The future starts here. And Britain will be _thin._"

_XOXO_

The two of us walked into the call centre of Adipose Industries. Many phones were going off with various employees answering the calls, using the same introduction of "Good Morning, I represent Adipose Industries."

We quickly slipped into one of the cubicles, each of us pulling a seat with us as we took a seat next to a nice looking woman who was currently on the phone to a customer. "We deliver within three working days…"

"John Smith and Nina Dobrev." The Doctor whispered, holding out the psychic paper to her. "Health and Safety. Don't mind us."

The woman turned around as she continued talking to the customer on the line, although her attention was obviously all focused on the Doctor who seemed completely oblivious towards it. "The box comes with 21 days' worth of pills, a full information pack and our special gift, and Adipose Industries pendent." Curiously the Doctor picked the said pendent up out of its box and stared at it closely, fiddling around with it. "It's made of 18 carat gold and it's yours for free. No, we don't give away pens. Sorry. No, I can't make an exception. No."

"We're going to need to keep this for testing." I said to the woman as she ended the phone call with her client, pointing to the pendent which the Doctor finally stopped staring at and turned his attention back to the two of us. "And we'll need a list of your clients."

"Yeah." The Doctor agreed. "Could you print it off?"

"Of course. Just give me a second." The woman replied, turning to her computer as she brought the list of information up onto the screen.

"And that's the printer there right?" I asked her, popping my head up and nodding in the direction of where I had spotted a printer earlier on.

The woman looked over in the direction I had gestured in and nodded. "By the plant, yeah."

"Fabulous."

"Has it got paper?" The Doctor asked, popping his head up to look over at the printer as well.

"Yeah, Jimbo keeps it stocked." She answered.

"Excuse me everyone if I could have your attention." Someone called, and I recognised the cold, strict voice to be Miss Foster. Both me and the Doctor popped our heads up slightly over the cubicle to look at her as all the employees stood up. As she began talking, she turned her head around in our direction and we quickly shot down behind the cubicle and out of sight. "On average, you're each selling 40 Adipose packs per day. That's not enough. I want 100 sales per person per day. And if not, you'll be replaced. 'Cause if anyone's good at trimming the fat, it's me. Now, back to it."

Miss Foster walked off, with two security guards in tow. The Doctor and I both turned to look at each other shuddering slightly at the woman's harsh cold words. "Anyway, if you could print that off, thanks." The Doctor said, getting back to the point. Neither of us really wanted to stay here much longer, risking exposure. Especially with that woman in charge of the whole business. The woman nodded, pressing the print button. "Thanks, then." The Doctor said happily as we both stood up to leave, but the woman pulled him back down in his seat again and handed him a piece of paper and I smirked, leaning against the cubicle. "Oh. What's that?"

"My telephone number." She said simply with a flirtatious look in her eyes.

"What for?" The Doctor asked, still not quiet getting it, still oblivious.

"Health and Safety." She answered, looking at him suggestively. "You be Health. I'll be Safety."

It was then that the Doctor finally got it, and I had to bit my lip to stop the giggle that was threatening to escape my lips. "Oh, ah… but that contravenes, um, paragraph five, subsection C. Sorry." He placed the paper with her phone number back down on the table as he grabbed my hand pulling me away towards the printer without another word.

It was then that I began to giggle, causing the Doctor to shoot me a glare. "Sorry." I looked at him with an innocent smile. "But it's too funny. That was a classic. And you really had no clue." We stopped at the printer and I looked down to see that it was completely empty. I frowned. "Where's the printing?"

The Doctor frowned, looking around to see if it had been put anywhere else. I looked to see if it generally did have paper, which it did while the Doctor looked around the photocopier to see if it was there but all to no result. "Better go back to her then." I said, nodding towards the cubicle we'd previously been in with a smirk.

The Doctor groaned running a hand through his hair as he made his way over, leaning against the outside of the cubicle. I followed doing the same. The Doctor chuckled as the woman turned and smirked at him as I done the same. "Hi. Us again."

_XOXO_

The Doctor walked up to the door of one Mr Rodger Davey with me walking closely behind him. He was the client that was the closest. Well, male wise. There had been one just a little closer named Stacey Campbell, but the Doctor after the earlier escapade didn't really want to knock on a woman's door. So he had chosen this man. As we both reached the door the Doctor knocked on it and we waited patiently as Rodger opened the door. I frowned momentarily; the man didn't look like he needed to lose any weight at all. But I soon brushed it off as the Doctor spoke.

"Mr Rodger Davey, I'm calling on behalf of Adipose Industries." He said and flashed up the psychic paper.

"We just need to ask you a few questions." I added, flashing him a small smile. "Mind if we come in?"

The man looked between the two of us and nodded, smiling as he ushered both of us into the house and into the living room. Rodger went and sat in his chair, while I went and sat to the left of the room on his sofa, the Doctor's trench coat placed next to me. The Doctor however just paced up and down the living room.

"Anyway, I'm Nina Dobrev and this is John Smith." I said as I gestured up to the pacing Time Lord. "Tell me, how long have you been using the Adipose pills?"

"I've been on the pills two weeks now. I've lost 14 kilos." Rodger answered, sounding rather proud of himself.

"That's the same amount every day?" The Doctor asked him, turning around to look at him for one short moment before he began pacing again.

"One kilo exactly." Rodger confirmed. "You wake up, and it's disappeared overnight. Well, technically speaking, it's gone by ten past one in the morning."

Both mine and the Doctor's heads turned around to look at the man, surprised by his accuracy. "What makes you say that?" The Doctor asked.

"That's when I get woken up." Rodger explained and shrugged. "Might as well weigh myself at the same time." The two of us shared a look before we continued listening to him. "It is driving me mad. Ten minutes past one, every night, bang on the dot, without fail, the burglar alarm goes off."

The Doctor and I frowned. "Can you show us?" The Doctor asked, becoming increasingly suspicious.

Rodger merely shrugged as he stood up from his chair and led us back outside the front door again. The three of us stood outside his house, looking up at the burglar alarm installed just outside the house. "I've had experts in, I've had it replaced, I've even phoned Watchdog. But no, ten past one in the morning, off it goes."

"But with no Burglars?" I asked, turning to him with a frown.

"Nothing. I've given up looking."

"Tell me, Rodger, have you got a cat flap?" The Doctor suddenly asked. I turned to him with a frown before my face turned into one of realization. That was a brilliant idea.

"Uh, yeah I do actually." Rodger replied. He pointed down to the small cat flap at the bottom of the front door. The Doctor and Rodger both went inside kneeling down so and peered through it while I knelt down on the outside so that I would be able to have a look at it as well. The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out, holding the cat flap open so he could inspect it. "It was here when I bought the house. I've never bothered with it really. I'm not a cat person."

"No we've met cat people." The Doctor said sort of distantly as he nodded over to me. "You're nothing like them." I grinned, remembering Thomas Brannigan from the New New York motorway. He was right. Definitely nothing like them, looks and personality wise.

"Is that what it is, though, cats getting inside the house?" Rodger asked. My eyes moved down to the floor as I sighed. It certainly wasn't going to be that simple.

"Well, the thing about cat flaps is they don't just let things in, they let things out as well." The Doctor commented, continuing to eye the cat flap.

"Like what?" Rodger asked.

My eyes widened slightly as I remembered something from back at the Adipose building earlier in the day. "'The fat just walks away'" I quoted, mumbling slightly before looking to the Doctor. "They can't mean that literally, can they?"

The Doctor was quiet a moment before he shrugged. "Who knows, maybe. Now, come on you." He dropped the cat flap and I saw him jump onto his feet on the other side of the door followed shortly by Rodger. The door then opened not too long after at the Doctor stepped outside as he pulled his trench coat on. "Well, thanks for your help." He said happily.

"Tell you what," I piped in, my eyes moving over to Rodger. "Maybe you could lay off the pills for a week or so." I said, concerned for him. He didn't exactly need them anyway, and I didn't want him to be at risk. There was a sudden beeping coming from the Doctor's pocket and my head shot up to him. "Have we got one?"

The Doctor said nothing as he pulled out a device he had made only the other day, which was flashing red, confirming my earlier question. "Ooh, gotta go! Sorry!" The Doctor shouted over to Rodger as he grabbed hold of my hand and we ran down the street in the direction the device was indicating to.

The device led us blocks and blocks away. We had run for about two blocks when the Doctor stopped suddenly, almost ripping my arm off in the process. I retracted my arm suddenly as I turned to look at him. The bleeping coming from the device which was fading. He banged his hand on it, blowing on it a couple of times and the device began to work again. He grabbed hold of my hand once more as we bolted down the street again, only for him to stop suddenly again after a couple more streets. I slapped him on the arm but he just ignored my shaking the device as it dinged and he took off again.

We ran into the street, stopping as we tried to make sense of where the device was indicating. I suddenly felt someone grab hold of me by the waist and almost screamed, until I realized it was the Doctor. He pulled me back onto the path just as a black van came speeding past us, beeping at us. I was about to stick my fingers up at the driver when the device suddenly beeped and I looked down confused. Quickly realizing the signal was coming from the van itself, we chased after it, taking a short cut as it turned a corner. However, it wasn't long until the van went out of range and we lost the signal. We both came to a halt, looking down at the device in disappointment.

"Damn it." I cursed as I tried to regain my breath.

The two of us sighed and we slowly made our way back to our home, the TARDIS.

Little did we know that just down the other street, standing there was Donna Noble.

_XOXO_

I sighed, bending down onto my knees as my eyes scanned the fridges contents, trying to find something that I wanted to eat. After a few minutes I made my decision and grabbed a handful of jubbly ice lollies and a bottle on banana milkshake and went on my way back to the console room where the Doctor was currently examining the Adipose Industries pendant we had collected earlier today.

"Ooh fascinating." I heard the Doctor talking as I got closer to the console room. "Seems to be a bio-flip digital stich specifically designed for…" He stopped mid-sentence as he probably finally realized I wasn't in the room. It was then I heard him call out for me in a whiny tone. "Kat."

I rolled my eyes, quickening my pace as I finally reached the console room. "Mhm." I mumbled as I sucked on one of the ice lollies.

The Doctor turned around to look at me slightly surprised. "Where did you go?"

I rolled my eyes again. Obviously he hadn't been listening to me while he had been working. I swear that he just carries on talking while I'm away. Just a minute ago had been proof of that. "I told you, I needed to the loo."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, obviously not being able to recall me saying that. "When did you say that?"

"About five minutes ago. I was hungry so I went and got food as well. Here, catch." I threw one of the ice pops at him, which he caught easily and began to open it.

"I didn't hear you say you were going." He mumbled, sucking on the ice lolly as continued to look at the pendent.

"Of course you didn't. You never listen when you're caught up in these things." I said, moving over to join him at the console. "Anyway, what did you find exactly?"

"Oh, right, yeah." The Doctor moved me around so I was standing in front of the capsule and placed a magnifying glass over the top of it as I looked down. After a few seconds I looked up at him confused, and he went on a little scientific rant.

I shook my head. "Make it into a one liner so I can at least try to understand?"

The Doctor sighed. "Basically, one touch and the pendent bio-tunes itself to its owner." He stated simply.

I nodded slowly. Although, I still didn't quite understand it completely. "So, we're going back, right?"

"Oh yes." The Doctor nodded. He finished off his ice pop and quickly rushed around the console, sending us into flight. He danced around it, flicking various buttons and leavers on his way around. He grabbed a metal hammer, banging it on the column. I winced. It didn't sound very nice. But I never brought it up. After pressing a few more buttons, we landed and slowly made our way back to the fire exit.

The routine went the same as it had done just twenty four hours ago. I kept a look out while the Doctor soniced the door open, causing it to crackle loudly and send sparks everywhere and then we crept inside. We walked along the corridors quietly, before we came across what looked like a cupboard. The Doctor took one long down either end of the corridor before he opened it, grabbing me by the hand as he pulled me inside, locking the door behind us. I sighed, leaning against one of the walls, as the Doctor done the same thing.

"Now all we have to do is wait." I mumbled quietly, staring blankly into the air.

"Yep." The Doctor shrugged. "Can't be that hard, can it?"

"Nope."

_XOXO_

I couldn't have been anymore wrong. Waiting was torture. I could barely even sit still through a 3 hour long film, so sitting here; waiting for a full day was hell. The Doctor had done a scan to search for any alien tech in the cupboard just out of plain boredom. But surprisingly there was. He had tried to hack into it, but it happened to be triple deadlocked, which was surprising as well. There had been things deadlocked and double deadlocked. But triple was new. A good thing was we had official proof now that Adipose Industries was indeed alien. We just needed to wait for night to come so we could truly investigate.

We'd tried to do a lot of things to entertain ourselves during the extremely long time we had to wait. We had a go at rock paper scissors, which came up to a draw when we got bored. We tried thumb wars, staring competitions. We even played mercy, but that didn't last long. It turned out I had an infinitive amount of pressure points. As did the Doctor. It ended up with the Doctor in the end just fiddling around with the settings on his sonic screwdriver. I on the other hand, tugged at my hair, re-laced my shoes and then began tapping out tunes on my knee again.

Finally, after nine hours and twenty minutes of waiting, the employees left their work and were heading back home. The Doctor jumped up, helping me up as well and he soniced the door open again and we stepped back into the long corridor. We were quiet as we walked around, Miss Foster was in the building somewhere and we didn't want to catch her attention just yet.

We decided to make our way outside and up to the roof. A building like Adipose Industries would probably have all sorts of intruder alarms after work time, and we didn't want to be setting any of them off. The Doctor bounded up a window cleaners cradle nearby and outstretched his arms to help me get inside.

"Ha, no." I said shaking my head vigorously. "Not happening."

"Kat." He whined. "Please get in."

"No." I said simply. "This building's like 20 stories up. And those things wobble. I don't like heights. It was bad enough on the Titanic, and climbing up the empire state building after you and—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You hate heights." The Doctor cut me off. "But this is the only way we can find out what they're doing."

"Well, how about you go down and find out what they're doing and report back to me later."

"Oh for God sake." The Doctor mumbled. He clambered out of the cradle and I frowned slightly. He walked up to me and the next minute I knew he was picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder, carrying me towards the cradle.

"Doctor! Stop it! Put me down!" I hissed at him, not wanting to speak too loudly in fear someone might hear us. He finally complied as he stepped into the cradle placing me down in it as well. Before I had a chance to clamber out, he pressed a button and the cradle began to descend down the building. "I hate you." I glared at him, not even daring to look down. The Doctor said nothing, pressing a button pulling the cradle to a halt as we reached what looked like Miss Foster's office. Our thoughts were confirmed when the door opened and Miss Foster walked through, two security with her as they dragged the science correspondent from the other day Penny into the room. Both the Doctor and I ducked down so that we were unseen and the Doctor pulled out his stethoscope placing it on the wall so that we could hear.

"You can't tie me up." Penny exclaimed. I rolled my eyes slightly. _Well, clearly they can seeming as they're doing it right now. _"What sort of country do you think this is?"

"Oh, it's a beautifully _fat_ country." Miss Foster replied. "And believe me; I've travelled a long way to find obesity on this scale."

"So come on then, Miss Foster. Those pills, what are they?" Penny asked.

"Well, you might as well have a scoop, since you'll never see it printed." The Doctor placed the stethoscope cautiously up onto the window so we could hear better. "This is the spark of life."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Penny asked, clearly getting annoyed. Although, she had pretty much every right to be. She was tied up in a room with a scary mad woman after all.

"Officially the capsule attracts all the fat cells and flushes them away." Miss Foster explained. "Well, it certainly attracts them, that part's true. But it binds the fat together and galvanises it to form a body." My eyebrows shot up at that, and I turned to give the Doctor a look.

"What do you mean a body?" Penny asked, clearly confused.

"I am surprised you never asked about my name. I chose it well." _A fake name. So she is an alien. _I thought. A part of me had been thinking that maybe she was just a human working under alien commands. "Foster. As in 'foster mother'. And these…" There was a sound of a drawer opening before Miss Foster finally spoke up again. "Are my children."

The Doctor and I looked at each other before nodding and the two of us slowly rose up to risk a look through the window. My eye brows shot up as soon as I did so. Placed onto the table was a small blob of white fat, a small, cute little grin plastered on its face. I had to try my best not to allow a 'aw' to escape from my lips. The little thing was so cute. Certainly not what I had expected.

"Are you kidding me?" Penny stammered, rather alarmed as she stared at the little blob on the table. "What the hell is that?"

"Adipose." Miss Foster answered, walking round her desk and standing in front of penny. "It's called an adipose, made out of living fat. Stripped from ordinary human people…"

Something in the corner of my eye suddenly grabbed my attention. I stopped listening to the conversation between Miss Foster and Penny as my eyes flittered over. My mouth dropped open instantly as I saw the fiery redhead spying though the office door. The fiery redhead in question was Donna Noble. I had stop myself from letting out a little squeal as my eyes moved back to the Doctor, whose attention was still focused on the other two. I nudged him arm and he turned to look at me, pointing over in the direction of Donna, the Doctor's eyes moved to look at her, just as Donna's eyes moved to meet us. A gleeful look on her face as she caught sight of him. The Doctor was stunned, having to do a double take to see if it was really her.

"Donna?" The Doctor mouthed to her through the window.

"Doctor!" Donna mouthed back, extremely excited. This was the start of a silent conversation between the two of them, and my eyes flittered between on the two of them. Trying to keep myself from jumping down in excitement. I loved Donna in the Christmas special. And now here she was! It was brilliant.

"But… what? Wha… what?" He responded, completely and utterly confused.

"Oh. My. God." Donna mouthed. A grin was still plastered on her face as she stared at the confused Time Lord.

"But… how?"

"It's me!" Donna pointed to herself. _Yes, it's you. Donna Noble. Oh, my God. _I thought to myself, resisting the urge to jump up and down in excitement.

"Yes, I can see that." The Doctor mouthed and mimed in response.

"Oh, this is brilliant!" Donna stuck her thumbs up, ecstatic. _Yes, Donna, it really is! _It was then I realized how much she actually looked like Catherine Tate, and the urge to jump up and down became even stronger. But then again, the Doctor does look like David Tennant. My eyes moved back over to him and my eyes widened, like I was only just realizing how much he truly looked like him. I squeal suddenly escaped from my lips and the Doctor's head snapped to look at me.

"Oh, no. You're fangirling now? Really?" I just stared at him grinning and he rolled his eyes, his attention moving back to Donna as he allowed me to continue to fangirl to my heart's content. "What the hell are you doing there?" He mouthed to her and pointed a finger at her.

"I was looking for you!" Came Donna's reply.

The Doctor pointed at himself questioningly. "What for?"

"I came here, trouble, read about it, on the internet." Donna mouthed and mimed her explanation. "I thought trouble = you! And this place is weird! Pills! So I hid. Back there. Crept along. Heard this lot. Looked. You! 'Cause they…" Donna stuck a thumb in Miss Foster and Penny's direction, stopping suddenly. Both mine and the Doctor's eyes moved and froze, seeing that Miss Foster had stopped her conversation with Penny and was now watching the three of us.

"Are we interrupting you?" She asked us, looking between us.

Our eyes moved back over to Donna as hers moved back over to us. "Run!" The two of us mouthed at the same time and with that Donna dashed away from the door and out of sight.

"Get her!" Miss Foster commanded her two guards. Trying to buy Donna some more time the Doctor grabbed his sonic, locking the door shut. "And them." She added. The Doctor turned the sonic screwdriver up to the cradle and we were zoomed up to the top of the roof again, with me holding onto the Doctor all the way.

The Doctor scrambled out of the cradle and dragged me out along with him and we both ran towards the doors leading to the stairwell. We ran down them as fast as we could. Half way down one of the few stairs we had run down we bumped into Donna who immediately pulled the Doctor into a tight hug which he returned.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, pulling out of the hug to look at him. "I don't believe it! You've even got the same suit!" Her eyes suddenly widened, looking at him curiously. "Don't you ever change?"

"He does." I suddenly piped in causing Donna's head to snap around to look at me. "He has one exactly like that one but it's in blue. Started wearing it when he met me. Not too sure why he hadn't worn it before then. Sorry! I'm Nina—" I stopped, shaking my head as I face palmed. "Nope, I'm not. Sorry, I'm Katherine. And can I just say how great it is to actually meet you?"

"Yeah…" The Doctor suddenly piped back in. "Can you both not do this right now?" A loud bang suddenly echoed through the stairwell and both me and the Doctor peered down to see that the guards had made their way out of the office. The Doctor grabbed hold of my hand and with his free hand grabbed hold of Donna's. "Just like old times!" He grinned as the three of us charged back up to the roof.

"'Cause I thought, 'How do you find the Doctor?' And then I just thought, 'Look for trouble and he'll turn up.'" Donna babbled on excitedly as the Doctor made his way back to the cradle and began sonicing with controls, giving me things to hold when I was needed to. "So I looked everywhere. You name it. UFO sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. That song about the bees disappearing, I thought, 'I bet he's connected.' Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes to all those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the _Titanic _flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas day. I mean, that's gotta be a hoax!"

"Actually not so much of a hoax." I said, looking up at her with a big grin. "That was us."

"What do you mean the bees are disappearing?" The Doctor asked suddenly as he finished with the controls, jumping into the cradle as he started messing around with that.

"I don't know. That's what it says on the Internet." Donna explained. "On the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries, and I thought, 'Let's take a look.'"

"In you get." You called to the two of us, motioning to the cradle.

"What?" I blinked. "No, please. Not again." The Doctor just shot me a look, which I knew instantly meant that if I didn't get into the cradle right now he'd throw me over his shoulder again and carry me in himself. I sighed, making my way into the steps cautiously as the Doctor helped me in.

"You too, Donna." He called out to her.

"What in that thing?" Said in disbelief as she pointed to it.

"Yes, 'in that thing.'"

"But if we go down in that, they'll just call us back up again." Donna argued. She did have a good point. My eyes moved over to the Doctor and raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, no, no, 'cause I locked the controls with a sonic cage." The Doctor explained. "I'm the only one that can control it." With that Donna complied with his orders and climbed up the stairs into the cradle. "Not unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely."

I groaned, holding my head in one hand as I used the other one to whack the Doctor in the arm. I didn't even need to look up at him to know that he was probably pouting, but I did anyway and shot a glare at him. "What have I told you about saying things that are going to jinx us?" The Doctor went to open his mouth again, probably to only to repeat what he had said early to try and defend himself. "Don't you dare say it again."

In the meantime Donna, seeming to trust the Doctor, had climbed into the cradle and was now standing beside us. "It's like I've gone and walked into the domestic zone. Are you two always like this?"

I shrugged, my brows furrowing together in thought for a moment. It was something that was becoming more common, I had to admit that. "Only when he's an idiot." My eyes glanced over to the Doctor to see him staring down at me. "Which is always. So yes, we're always like this."

With that the Doctor set the cradle to descend down the building, making is start with an extra-large jolt as payback for calling him an idiot. I jumped, finding myself suddenly clinging onto him, only for him to smile smugly. As we got further down I began to relax a little and moved away from the Doctor, but still clinging onto the rails. However we were still at a tremendous height and the cradle was going at a ridiculously slow pace.

Suddenly, instead of going down and a controlled, slow pace, the cradle jolted and began to just all down, picking up speed rapidly. I let out a scream as the grip I had on the rails tightened and tried to keep myself standing up. My eyes moved upwards, seeing Miss Foster holding some sort of sonic device in her hand pointed at the controls. _I knew it! He's gone and done it again. _The Doctor fumbled around in his pocket for his sonic, pointing it up to the controls. The cradle jolted again as it came to a sudden halt and the three of us let out a sigh of relief.

The Doctor jumped up onto his feet, not wanting to even give me a seconds chance to tell him that I told him so. He pointed his sonic at the window. "Hold on! Hold on, we can get in through the window." However, there was a sudden click throughout the whole building as if something was being locked. And the Doctor's sonic wasn't working. "I can't get it open!" He growled in frustration. I sighed, head in my hands once again. _Deadlocked. Great._

"Smash it, then!" Donna cried as she picked up a rather large spanner from the tool box and began hammering at the window. The Doctor continued to try with his sonic for short moment until the three of us were all continuously hammering at the window. But the safety glass was far too strong to do any damage.

I heard a crackle and caught sight of a green spark up above. My eyes moved up again to see Miss Foster using her sonic device again, this time pointing it at the cable, which was where the green sparks were coming from as she burnt through it. I gulped, trying to swallow the lump forming in my throat. _Shit, shit, shit! _"She's cutting the bloody cable!" I cried.

Both the Doctor and Donna only just had enough time to look before for a second before the cable was cut through. It snapped and the cradle swung down onto its side. The Doctor managed to grab hold on the cradle to stop him from falling. However Donna and I weren't as lucky. Donna rolled out first, followed by me. I screamed, grabbing onto the cable around halfway down and clinging onto it for dear life. Donna did the same, but a lot further down than me, only just managing to cling onto a metal piece of the cable right at the bottom.

"Katherine!" The Doctor cried. "Donna!"

"Doctor!" The two of us screeched back.

"Hold on!"

I let out an eye roll, but Donna got to the snarky reply before I did. "I am!"

The Doctor grabbed hold of the cable, trying to pull us both up with it. But the weight of both Donna and me put together was too heavy even for him. He moved away as Miss Foster moved over to the other side, where the second cable that was still intact was. She was going to cut with other one. I only just saw her bring her sonic device up to the cable; ready to cut it and the Doctor raised his screwdriver up as well. It must have caused some shock as Miss Foster suddenly let go of her pen, and it fell down right into the Doctor's hand. The cradle wriggled as he climbed up to the top of the cradle sonicing the windows again.

"I'm gonna fall!" Donna cried form the bottom as she tried to keep her grip on the metal thing.

"Don't say stuff like that!" I shouted down at her as I too tried to keep my grip on the cable. My eyes moved up the Doctor, sending him a glare. "This is your fault you know! Very unlikely she has a sonic device of her own my ass! You jinxed us!"

"Ugh, I should have stayed at home!" I heard Donna complaining from below.

"I won't be a minute!" The Doctor shouted down to the two of us before he crawled through the window he had managed to open now, with the help of Miss Foster sonic device.

The minute he said he'd be felt like an eternity, and I felt my hands start to become sweaty as I continued to try and hold onto the cable. I closed my eyes, praying he'd hurry up at get us soon. My hands became sweatier and a hand slipped off the cable the other one shortly after. Another high-pitched scream came from my mouth, knowing I was going to fall to a certain death when a hand suddenly grabbed hold of my arm. My eyes which had been closed in fear opened to see the Doctor as he pulled me up through the window. I sighed in relief as I got closer to it, scrambling through the small opened and falling to the floor.

"Cut it a bit fine why don't you." I tried to scold him, but couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips. The Doctor clicked his tongue, helping me up off the floor before darting off to continue his mission and save Donna. I followed him, making our way down to the next floor as we barged through Miss Foster's office. We made our way to the window to open it, as Donna's legs kicked angrily at the air.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" My eyes moved over, only just noticing that Penny was still there tied up at to the chair like she had been earlier.

"What are you journalist?" The Doctor asked, glancing over at her once before his attention was completely back to Donna as he opened the window.

"Yes!"

"Well then make it up!" The two of us said in unison as I grabbed hold of Donna's legs. The two of us shared and eerie look before I winced in pain as Donna kicked me. "Ow! Donna stop it!"

"Get off!" She shouted down at me.

The Doctor grabbed hold of her as well, trying to stop her kicks. "We've got you! We've got you! Donna, stop kicking!" Despite her protest kicks, we both managed to get her through the window. A lot more graciously that the Doctor had done with me.

Donna let out a sigh, straightening her jacket as she half glared at the Doctor. "I was right. It's always like this with you, isn't it?"

"Oh yes!" The Doctor answered. "And off we go!" The Doctor grabbed hold of my hand again as the three of us darted out the room. There was the sound of Penny protesting and he suddenly stopped halfway down the corridor, turning around as he ran back towards the office, dragging me along with him in the process. He poked his head round the door, flashing his sonic at the ropes she was tied up in. He went to leave again, but poked his head around the door one last time. "Now do yourself a favour. Get out!"

_XOXO_

We continued to run down the calls, all the way through to the call centre when we skidded to sudden stop, coming face to face with Miss Foster and her two guards. "Well then," Miss Foster remarked, her voice still sounding as patronizing as before. "At last."

"Hello." Donna offered giving a small wave.

"Yeah, hi." I smiled hesitantly as well, waving a little as well.

"Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor." The Doctor introduced.

"I'm Donna."

"And I'm Katherine."

"Partners in crime." Miss Foster commented with a smile that seemed slightly faked. "And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology."

"Oh, yes." The Doctor said excitedly as he patted down his pockets. "I've still got your sonic pen." He brought it out and looked down at it. "Nice. I like it. Sleek. It's kind of sleek." He held it out to me and Donna to take a look.

"Oh it's definitely sleek." Donna agreed as she looked down at it.

"Most definitely." I added and flashing a grin up with the Doctor. "I could do with one of those."

The Doctor just rolled his eyes at me, knowing instantly what I was hinting at. His head turned around to Miss Foster as he continued. "And if you were to sign your real name, that would be…?"

"Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic class." I blinked and shook my head. That name was far long for me to even try and process it in my head.

"A wet nurse." The Doctor muttered. "Using humans are surrogates."

"I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding plant was lost." Miss Foster explained.

"What do you mean lost?" I almost cried. My brows furrowed together and I titled my head to one side. "How can you lose a planet?"

"Oh, the politics are none of my concern." Miss Foster waved us off. "I'm just here to take care of the children on behalf of the parents."

"What, like an outer space super-nanny?" Donna asked. Her face was one of confusion as she tried to keep up with everything.

"Yes, if you like." Miss Foster flashed us another forced smile.

"So…So those little things, they're made out fat, yeah?" Donna asked. "But that woman, Stacey Campbell, there was nothing left of her."

"Oh in a crisis, the adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs." Miss Foster explained to her. "Makes a little bit sick, poor things."

Both me and Donna scoffed at that. "What about poor Stacey?" Donna asked.

My body seemed to be working faster than my feet and I took a step forwards. However the Doctor grabbed hold of me and pulled me back. His body was tense and I could see the small scowl on his face. "Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law." He said seriously.

"Are you threatening me?" Miss Foster asked her voice completely calm.

"He's trying to help you actually." I sniped. _Like he always does. No matter what bad things they do, he always gives you a second chance. _

"This is your one chance." The Doctor told her, his serious tone still there. "'Cause if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you."

"I hardly think you can stop bullets." Miss Foster said. The two guards cocked their guns and held them up towards us.

The Doctor instantly stood in front of me and Donna. He raise his arms up as he tried to stop them for a moment, "No, hold on, hold on, hold on. One more thing, before… dying. Do you know what happens if you hold to identical sonic devices against each other?" He asked as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket.

"No." Miss Foster said and let out an irritated breath.

"Nor me. Let's find out." He held the two blue tips of both sonics against each other. An awful, high pitched noise suddenly resounded through the room. I covered my ears over with my hands as I tried to block the noise out as best as I could, Donna doing the same. Miss Foster and her two guards, also trying to block out the pain seemed more affected however as the three of them hunched over in agony. A glass pane nearby shattered and I rolled my eyes, pushing the Doctor to stop him.

"Come on!"

_XOXO_

We ran through the building, sprinting around different corners and through different hallways as we tried to keep the guards as far away from our trail as possible. We stopped as we reached the same corridor that we had entered the building in, reaching the cupboard that both me and the Doctor had spent the whole day waiting in. He opened the door to the cupboard and began chucking its contents out and onto the floor.

"Well, that's one solution, hiding in a cupboard." Donna commented, her eyes flickering between the discarded items on the floor and the Doctor. "I like it."

The two of us stepped inside as the Doctor shifted a stone panel over to the side, revealing the alien tech that we had discovered earlier in the day. "Been trying to hack into this thing all day, 'cause the Matron's got a computer core running through the centre of the building. Triple-deadlocked." The Doctor placed his brainy specs on and pulled out Miss Fosters sonic pen from his pocket. "But now I've got this, I can get into it." The Doctor then turned back to the computer, fiddling around with wires. "She's wired the up the whole building. We need a bit of privacy." He grabbed two sparking plugs and pushed them together. I heard a cry of two men not too far down the hall way.

"Doctor!" I hissed, looking down at him wide-eyed. "Did you just zap them?"

"Just enough to stop them." He reassured. His attention moved back to the main problem at hand. "Why has she wired up a tower block? What's it all for?" He grabbed a load of cables, shoving most of them into my arms as he began to work on them, sonicing a few here and there.

"_**Inducer online.**_" The computer announced.

"You look older." Donna commented quietly.

"Thanks." The Doctor mumbled.

"I can see you're not on your own anymore." She glanced over at me and smiled, almost like she was thankful.

"Oh, yeah proper introduction." The Doctor smiled pointing in between the two of us as he introduced us. Not that Donna Noble really needed any introduction. "Donna Noble, Kat Stewart. Kat Stewart, Donna Noble."

"I hope you're looking after her." She commented, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"She looks after me."

Donna nodded, giving me a knowing look. When she had met the Doctor she had pretty much saved him too, if she hadn't told him to stop he probably would have drowned himself a long with the Racnoss babies. We both had an idea of what it was like, having to look after the Doctor.

"It wasn't just me, anyway." I added, smiling slightly. "We had another friend along for a bit as well.

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded. "Martha she was called. Martha Jones. She was brilliant. And I destroyed half her life." I sighed, elbowing him hard in the side, causing him to jump. "What the hell did I say then?!"

"You said it was your fault." I said calmly. My eyes were serious as I stared up at him. "Don't you ever say that. It wasn't your fault."

The Doctor just smiled at me, pulling me into a quick hug before he returned to his work. "Anyway, she's fine, she's good. She's gone."

"What about Rose?" Donna asked. I felt myself wince slightly. It was still a relatively raw thing for him, even if he didn't want to admit it. It was something he kept buried, as did I with Ryan these days.

"Still lost." The Doctor answered quietly. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow as he tried to change the subject. "I thought you were going to travel the world?"

"Easier said than done." Donna said. She had noticed the change in topic, I knew that. But like me, she didn't want to push him. "It's like I had that one day with you, and I was going to change. I was going to do so much. Then I woke up the next morning… Same old life. It's like you were never there."

I just nodded my eyes moving down to the floor. That was the truth of it. The Doctor could blunder into your life; change your whole outlook on life with all the wonder of time and space. But then when he leaves, it's like all of that was just a dream, like it never happened. It made me wonder that if I ever got the chance to go back home, if I would take it. Could anyone ever go back to a completely normal life after travelling with the Doctor?

"And I tried… I did try." Donna continued. "I went to Egypt. I was going to go barefoot and everything. And then it's all bus trips and guidebooks and 'Don't drink the water' and then two weeks later you're back home. It's nothing like being with you. I must have been mad turning down that offer."

"What offer?" The Doctor asked. I rolled my eyes. _Is he really that stupid? What else is she here for?_

"To come with you." Donna reminded him.

"Come with us?" the Doctor asked, seeming a little stunned. I couldn't help but smile. The 'us' thing seemed to be becoming more frequent. It made me feel more welcome, more like I wasn't just someone along for a ride anymore.

"Oh, yes, please!" Donna grinned.

"Right…" The Doctor said. He still seemed a little dazed and uncertain about how we had even got to his point. I however was just as ecstatic as Donna was. Never thought I'd be meeting her, but now she was even probably going be travelling with us! This was brilliant!

"_**Inducer activated.**_" The computer announced, making the attention of all three of us quickly turn back to it.

"She hasn't has she…?" I asked my eyes moving up to the Doctor.

He just nodded gravely. "She's started the programme."

"_**Inducer transmitting.**_"

The Doctor quickly bent down, working rapidly at the wires as he tried to stop it while me and Donna couldn't do anything except watch and hope. "So far they're just losing weight. But the Matron's gone up to emergency parthenogenesis." The Doctor quickly explained.

"And that's when they convert…" Donna couldn't even finish her sentence.

"Skeletons, organs, everything." The Doctor finished for her. "A million people are going to die!" He pulled out the golden Adipose pendent from his pocket. He pulled off one end, revealing a chip. "This contains the primary signal. If I can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat. He began to hook it up to the computer, but it seemed Miss Foster had other ideas.

"_**Inducer increasing.**_"

The Doctor's face fell at that and my heart sank. "Bollocks." I muttered. There really wasn't any way out of this now.

"No, no, no! She's doubled it! I need…" He looked around frantically. "I haven't got time. It's too far. I can't override it. They're all going to die!"

"Don't say that, Doctor." I said to him, sternly before my voice softened. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Sorry Kat, but this is way beyond you two. I've got to double the base pulse. I can't…"

"Doctor, tell us, what do you need." Donna pressed.

"I need a second capsule to boost the override, but I've only got the one." The Doctor explained hastily. "I can't save them."

Donna's face suddenly seemed to relax. Her hand reached into her pocket as she casually pulled out a gold chain, and on it was an Adipose pendent. The Doctor's head snapped around and looked at in shock. The three of us grinned bursting into laughter before he snatched the pendent and began wiring it up to the machine. The lights powered down and the small alarm blaring from the computer turned silent.

"Donna Noble you are brilliant!" I grinned at her happily. However the smile dropped from my face just as a loud horn sounded, shaking the entire building.

"What the hell is that?" Donna asked, the three of us looking up to where the sound had come from.

"It's the nursery." The Doctor answered simply.

"When you say 'nursery', you don't meant some crèche just up the road." I said quietly. "You mean…"

"Nursery ship." The Doctor finished my sentence.

"_**Incoming signal**_." The computerized voice spoke again and the machine began to light up with its green colour again. A voice message began to sound from the computer. It was spoken in some alien language that I couldn't understand, but by the focused look on the Doctor's face, I could tell he could make sense of it.

"Hadn't we better go and stop them?" Donna asked.

"Hold on, hold on." The Doctor held up a hand to shut her up. "Instructions from the Adiposian First Family." It was silent for a moment as he continued to listen before he began to translate for us. "She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post…. Ooh." His eyes widened as he pulled back. "We're not the ones in trouble now. She is!" He jumped up, grabbing our hands as we darted off again.

_XOXO_

We reached the top in a matter of now time. The three of us watched as thousands upon thousands little Adipose babies flew up towards the nursery ship in the blue light of the levitation beam. "What are you going to do, then?" Donna asked. "Blow them up?"

"They're just children. They can't help where they came from." The Doctor defended, looking up as he watched the babies.

"Oh, well, that makes a change from last time." Donna commented. She nudged me lightly and smiled. "Katherine and that Martha must have done you good."

"Yeah, they did. Yeah. Yeah." The Doctor agreed, he looked down at me and smile before looking back to Donna again. "She fancied me. Martha, I mean."

Donna resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but it seemed her mouth moved faster that he brain thought. "Mad Martha, that one. Blind Martha. Charity Martha."

I giggled slightly and shook my head. One of the reasons I loved Donna, she always seemed to make me laugh no matter what. "Leave them alone."

Donna just grinned as we all looked back up. An Adipose baby caught sight of us and waved at us. The three of us waved back. "I'm waving at fat." Donna remarked.

"Actually as a diet plan it sort of works." The Doctor shrugged.

"Create new life and lose weight." I shrugged as well. "Better than any other diet plan out there."

"There she is!" The Doctor suddenly called out, catching sight of Miss Foster as she rose up in the levitation beam. We all rushed over to the sight, as the Doctor called out trying to get her attention. "Matron Cofelia, listen to me!"

"Oh, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I never see you again it'll be too soon." She sneered.

The Doctor just groaned, looking at me annoyed. "Why does no one ever listen?" He then turned back to Matron. "I'm trying to help! Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?"

"What? So you can arrest me?" She snapped.

"Just listen. I saw the Adiposian instructions." The Doctor explained. "They know it's a crime, breeding on Earth, so what's the one thing they want to get rid of? They're accomplice."

"I'm for more than that. I'm Nanny." Matron corrected, raising her hands up to gesture to the babies. "To all these children."

"Yes exactly. _You're_ the _nanny_." I tried to emphasize the point to her. "Mum and Dad have got their kids now haven't they? So what would they need you for anymore?"

The smile that had been on her face suddenly fell as she realized. But it was too late. The last Adipose baby had reached the ship, and the levitation beam was turned off. Matron instantly plummeted to the floor screaming. The Doctor pulled to him and I buried my face in his chest so I couldn't see, but I still heard the loud thump of her body hitting the pavement.

"Better phone Torchwood." I mumbled as the ship flew away. I pulled away from the Doctor but still refusing to look down. "Don't want people cutting up her body to find she's alien."

_XOXO_

"Yeah, Owen. I'm fine honest." I said for the second time. I was starting to think that maybe I should have phoned Jack, but I would have probably just got the same with him as well. "I wouldn't be talking to you now if I wasn't okay now, would I?"

"_Yeah, yeah. Point taken."_ He grumbled.

"How's your mum?" I asked concerned. She lived here while he lived in Cardiff. But I'm sure she would have got in contact with him somehow.

Owen just sighed. _"She's fine. Shocked. But she'll get over it. Nothing a bottle or two can't fix." _He didn't sound phased at all that his mum could have died tonight. But then again, he had already told me before his relationship wasn't the best. She had kicked him out with he was 16, and never really loved him when he was a child. He still tried to make it work, hence how he had found out about the pills in the first place. But something told me it would take a lot more than that.

"That's good." I said, smiling weakly. I caught sight of the Doctor outside the building and walked up to him. "Listen, Miss Fosters body. Could one of you guys pick it up?"

"_What for?"_ He almost whined. Something told me he'd rather not have to do it.

"She's an alien." I said, like it was obvious. "Wouldn't be a good idea if someone found that out now would it?"

"_But why do we have to." _His voice was still whiny. _"Can't you—"_

"Oh just do it will you!" I snapped. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up and I winced slightly as a couple members of the public shot around to stare at me. "Please?" I asked my tone a lot softer than before.

"_Fine."_ Owen sighed. _"Will I see you there?"_

"Probably not. Sorry, we sort of have a companion situation." I explained as I saw Donna walking up to us.

"_What?"_

"Oh, ask Jack. He'll get it. Anyway, really got to go. See you around?"

"_Yeah. Bye, sweetheart."_

I hung up placing my phone back in my pocket as the Doctor held out Marton's sonic pen to me. "Sorry. But why are you holding that out to me?"

"You don't want it?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows. I instantly shook my head, taking it out of his hand. "I was going to throw it in the bin but…. Well, you said you would like one earlier back in there. And it's better that just leaving it in there and risking it getting into the wrong hands. So have it. It's yours."

I looked at him, slightly shocked. I grinned like a manic, pulling him into a tight hug which caused Donna to laugh at us.

"Oi! You three!" Someone called out. Our heads snapped around to see Penny walking towards her. Her back was hunched as she was tied down to the chair with ropes yet again. "You're just mad! Do you hear me? Mad! And I'm going to report you for… Madness." And with that she scuttled away, probably to find someone that could get her out of those ropes.

"You see, some people just can't take it." Donna said. Both the Doctor and I nodded our heads.

"No." The Doctor voiced his agreement.

"And some people can," She added, her voice becoming bright and higher pitched. "So then. TARDIS. She grabbed hold of both and mine and the Doctor's hands and dragged us along. "Come on!"

_XOXO_

We walked through the alleyway, the Doctor in front as we headed to the TARDIS. However, Donna suddenly stopped. "That's my car!" She cried in delight. "Oh that is like destiny!" She moved over to her car, opening the boot of it, revealing a load of packed suitcases. "And I've been ready for this. I packed ages ago, just in case. 'Cause I thought, 'Hot weather. Cold weather. No weather. He goes anywhere. I've got to be prepared.'" She piled a load of suitcases into his arms as she talked, shoving one last box on top.

"You've got a… a… hat box?" The Doctor asked, slightly bewildered.

"Planet of the hats, I'm ready!" Donna exclaimed. I laughed slightly, grabbing the hat box and another bag off of him, lugging them over to the TARDIS along with him. "I don't need in injections, do I? You know like when you go Cambodia, is there any of that? 'Cause my friend Veena went to Bahrain and she…" She stopped suddenly realizing the silence that was coming from the Doctor's mouth. "You're not saying much."

"He's in shock." I told her. "The whole companion thing doesn't usually go this way."

"It's just…" The Doctor sighed. "It's a funny old life, in the TARDIS."

"You don't want me…" Donna's tone and gone down by a drastic amount and her expression had saddened.

"I'm not saying that." He defended.

"But you _asked _me." She looked from the Doctor to me and then back to him again. "Would it you rather it be you two on your own?"

I shook my head. "No."

The Doctor also shook his head. "Actually, no." He trailed off; trying to find a way to explain whatever was on his mind. He dropped the bags down on the floor before speaking up again. "The last time, with Martha, like I said, it… It got complicated. And that was all my fault…." He sighed again. "I just want a mate."

"You just want _to _mate!" Donna cried in disgust.

The Doctor's head snapped up, horrified and instantly tried to correct her. "I just want _a _mate."

"You're not mating with me, sunshine!" She stepped back and tried to shield herself behind to door of the TARDIS. "Mate with her or something!" She pointed over at me, which caused both the Doctor and I to send disgusted look at one another.

"_A_ mate!" The Doctor corrected again. "I want _a_ mate!"

"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense." Donna said as she stepped back out. "I mean you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing."

I smiled slightly while the Doctor nodded. "There we are, then." The two of them nodded. "Okay."

"I can come?" Donna asked. The hopefulness was clear in her voice and her eyes.

"Yeah. Course you can, yeah." The Doctor nodded and grinned. "I'd love it." His head turned to me, waiting for my confirmation.

"You already had my vote!" I grinned as well.

Donna exclaimed happily. "That's just…" Words failed her. She flung her arms open to hug as and both the Doctor and I done the same, but she suddenly seemed to stop, realizing something. "Car keys!" She cried, digging her hands in her pocket.

"What?" I frowned.

"I've still got my mum's car keys." She said, waving them in my face before sprinting off. "I won't be a minute!" She called, leaving just me and the Doctor to carry all her stuff inside.

_XOXO_

_**3**__**rd**__** Person POV**_

Donna walked out of the alleyway, her phone pressed to her ear as she tried to speak to her frantic mother who was on the phone. "I know, Mum, I saw it. Little fat people. Listen, I've got to go. I'm staying with Veena for a bit."

"_But it was in the sky…" _Syliva's bewildered voice came down the line.

"Yeah, I know. Spaceship. But I've still got the car keys." She was silent for a moment before she suddenly came up with an idea. "Look, there's a bin on Brook Street about 30 feet from the corner. I'm going to leave them in there." She chucked the keys into the bin, thudding as they hit the bottom.

"_What? A bin?"_

"Yes, I said 'bin'."

"_But you can't do that—"_

"Oh, stop complaining. The car's just down the road a bit. Got to go. Really got to go. Bye."

"_But, Donna you can't—"_

Donna hung up the phone before Sylvia could even finish her sentence. She looked around the place for a moment catching sight of two blondes. One was a man, his blonde hair spiked up messily in all sorts of directions, wearing a simple pair of black skinny jeans, a white shirt and black leather jacket. The other was a woman; her blonde hair was left down straight, wearing a pair of black trousers, a dark pink top and purple leather jacket. Donna rushed over to them. "Listen!" She called out to them. The two blondes turned. "Listen, there's this woman who's going to come along, a tall blonde woman called Sylvia. Tell her, 'that bin there.' All right? It'll all make sense. 'That bin there'."

"Oh, uh, sorry." The man spoke up, his accent telling her he clearly wasn't from London. More like somewhere up north. "We were just here looking for some friends of ours. But it turns out they're not here." He smiled sadly. "And we should be on our way so…"

"I'd go tell one of the police or the journalists." The woman suggested, her accent showing she was most definitely form London. "You'll be able to count on them. They're going to be here a while."

"Yeah." Donna smiled at them as she began walking away. "Thanks anyway." She went up to one of the journalists that had turned up, desperately trying to get a report. She repeated exactly what she had said to the two blondes before walking away. She turned around looking back at the scene for one last moment. The two blondes were gone, leaving the police, journalists and a couple of onlookers.

_XOXO_

_**Katherine's POV**_

"Off we go, then!" Donna said as she stepped into the TARDIS.

"Here it is, the TARDIS." The Doctor began introducing. "It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"Oh, I know that bit." Donna stopped his, waving it away with her hand. "Although frankly, you could turn the heating up."

I laughed and shook my head. "You don't know how many times I've said that to him."

The Doctor pouted for a moment before letting the interruption pass. "So… Whole wide universe. Where do you want to go?"

"Oh, I know exactly the place." Donna said.

"Which is?" I asked, leaning against one of the pillars with a raised eyebrow.

"Two and a half miles that way." She said with a nod in the direction she wanted to go.

_XOXO_

The Doctor complied with Donna's request. We flew across London until we were just above a hill. Donna fled down the ramp to the doors and opened them, waving enthusiastically.

"That's my Donna!" I heard someone call out. Both me and the Doctor joined Donna by the doors, only just seeing the elderly man who Donna was waving at, standing by a telescope. He pointed up at us, getting more excited by the moment. The Doctor and I smiled sheepishly, waving at him. We only just caught him doing some funny little dance. Then the TARDIS doors closed and we zoomed off. Into time and space.

_XOXO_

**Authors Note: And back to the Doctor Who episodes! This chapter was extremely chunky. The episodes rather fast paced so… I hope I fitted Katherine in all right. I tried my best.**

**It appears that Rose is now back. But the big question is… who was that second blonde man that was with her? All will be revealed in later chapters, and I mean later ones. Although, you will get a few more hints a little sooner. You have no idea how excited I was to write just that bit to be honest. Things are going to get interesting, I promise you.**

**Oh and Katherine has her own sonic now. I don't know, I just felt the pen went to waste. And the Doctor likes giving her presents so there you go. You might see her wander off and use it to get herself out of sticky situations herself now. You never know. ;)**

**This may be the last chapter for a while. I'm on half term, but I have two exams ending two of my GCSE course in June on the 13****th**** and 14****th****, then I have a Maths mock on the 19****th****. So some time after that you may get the next chapter. I have work experience on the first week of July, but that won't get in the way too much I don't think.**

**Let me know what you think of the chapter, how the blonde man is, whatever! I like to hear everything. Also what did everyone think about The Name of The Doctor? John Hurt… wow.**

**Also, don't forget I made a blog on tumblr. The username is "thekatstewartseries" or you can just use the link on my profile.**

**Until the next time.:) **


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